


Parallel Lives

by Leodragon678



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2019-08-29 09:10:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 42,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16741123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leodragon678/pseuds/Leodragon678
Summary: What if Sonic, Tails, Amy, and everybody else, never met one another? How would their lives be different?Inspired by fan art.





	1. Prophecy

**Alright, this story is a favor for a friend of mine. He wanted a story based off one of his favorite AU ideas, I’m happy to oblige. If you want to view the base image and inspiration, click here!**

**<https://www.deviantart.com/hoshinousagi/art/SC-AU-Redesign-545195484> **

 

**Alright, let’s get going!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Prophecy** _

“Come on man! You said you’d pay forty thousand not twenty five.”

“I’m not sure what goes on in that head of yours Maurice, but I told you twenty five from the start.”

“You’re trying to con me! I’ll do thirty five.”

“No way, twenty five was our agreement.”

Maurice was in the middle of a heated argument with the shop owner. Truth was, they had agreed on twenty five before he had left, he just had to be sure Ivo didn’t remember. His prediction hadn’t been correct however, otherwise he would have been out of here by now, they didn’t call him ‘Sonic' for nothing.

Sonic spun around on his heel, “If you’re not interested, I can always find another buyer, one that keeps their deals.” He spoke, stowing the small ruby as he did so.

“Let’s not be brash here,” The overlander from behind the counter spoke. “I can give you twenty eight, but not any higher!”

“Make it thirty and you’ve got a deal.”

Ivo sighed, Maurice was one of his best sellers, even if he had a habit of pushing his luck. “Deal.”

The two shook on it and the gem switched hands, along with thirty thousand credits.

Maurice turned to the door, “I’ll be back.”

“I know you will.”

He stepped out of the shop and into the street, he had some ideas for what to do with his newfound credits, the Tornado could always use a new engine, he’d been told that he'd look good with a brown scarf, he seriously doubted it, but there was no harm in trying.

Eventually he left the city limits and broke into a run, accelerating very quickly. Super speed came in handy, he didn’t know what he would do without it. He slowed down and arrived at his small hut, a bright red biplane sat outside. Dubbed ‘The Tornado’ when he first built it, it basically facilitated his entire lifestyle.

Inside he hung up his pack and sat at the table, maps of all sorts covered the table. He was getting closer to something, he had heard stories of a magical stone of some sort. Sonic continued to stare down at the maps and photos. _“Its somewhere around here,”_ He thought, circling an area with his finger. The area had an ancient ruin of sort, he wasn’t quite sure it was safe enough to traverse, but if this gem was everything he’d heard it was, it would be worth it.

Sonic grabbed his second pack from the table, checking inside, he noted that he had everything packed, he could go out now. Rolling the maps and stuffing them into the pack, he elected to go with his instincts and just do it. He exited the house and started up the Tornado, he started to fly directly east, he supposed he could run there, but it was decently far and he could get lost in the maze of trees, the Tornado was a much safer alternative. He put on his flight goggles and started to increase his speed. If he wanted to get there and back by sundown he needed to get moving. He enjoyed living life how he wanted to, and nobody could tell him otherwise. Consulting the map every now and again, he eventually landed outside the ruins. They looked even bigger up close.

_“Now if I was a magical gemstone, where would I be…”_ He looked up at the archway in front of him, a diamond with lines radiating out of it was carved into the stone. _“Bingo.”_

He entered the temple, the entire place was in shambles and crumbling from age, whatever lived here had left or died out long ago. Ornate carvings covered the wall, many of which depicted the diamond. His curiosity peaked, he continued deeper into the structure, several small crevices dotted the pathway. Nothing he couldn’t handle. He entered the central chamber and spotted a green gemstone on a pedestal, it was cut like a diamond, and looked identical to the ones in the carvings.

_“Well, that was easy.”_ He thought.

Ascending the steps he found himself standing at the pedestal, the gem was incredibly beautiful, unlike anything he had ever seen. Picking the stone up, he could feel its weight in his hands. He whistled to himself, he could get some serious cash for this. He placed the stone into his bag. As he began to exit, the pedestal itself started to rise, something broke through the stone floor of the chamber. Sonic started to dart toward the exit, and straight into a wall. The door had sealed itself. The figure continued to rise from the floor until it was finally fully visible, it was a golem. Animated by an unknown force, he recognized it from some of the carvings he had spotted earlier. It attempted to strike him with its fist, however, Sonic easily dodged the slow moving attack.

“Gonna have to try a little harder than that temple!” Sonic yelled to nobody in particular. He attempted to kick the golem in the head, only to be met with protective shield of some sort. It was radiating an energy field of some sort to protect itself. Sonic looked around for anything else he could use, eventually he saw a crevice that had appeared in the ceiling over the years, it was too high to reach just by jumping, he would need some extra height.

Sonic dodged another strike from the golem and jumped onto its arm. Running up onto its shoulder and finally its head, jumped up and grabbed the edge of the crack. He hoisted himself through the crack as the golem attempted to strike him. The fist blasted apart the stone around the crack, continuing through in an attempt to connect with its target. Sonic smiled to himself, now that he was in the open he was much more free to move around.

Sonic easily outran the golem, who was incapable of keeping up with the speedster.  
Back outside, Sonic looked into his pack. The gem was still nicely tucked into his bag, it mesmerized him as it glinted in the light. He moved back to the Tornado and took off, he was excited to see what Ivo would think about the stone. It was a sight to behold.

He returned to his hut just as the sun was beginning to set, he placed the gem onto the table, he would figure out more about it tomorrow, he was tired. He rolled himself into bed and fell into a deep sleep.

**-X-**

Sonic slowly opened his eyes, he rolled out of bed and looked over to the table, the usual maps and photos dotted the table, however one thing concerned him. The gem was gone. He checked around the house in a panic before darting outside. The stone was sitting in the grass outside, relief washed over him as he grabbed the jewel. As he touched it, the grass grew darker and he turned around to find his house in shambles.

Now curious, he entered into his home, everything had been torn apart in the house. He could feel an energy of some sort radiating in the room. He spotted plenty of things in the home that weren’t his, as if someone, or something, had been staying here.

“Maurice,” a voice from behind him spoke.

He turned around and spotted, what he recognized as a Echidna. She wore more traditional clothing and appeared to be glowing.

“Your world is in great danger, a dark power awakens, you must gather the other six Chaos Emeralds if your world is to be saved.”

“What do you mean saved? What dark power?”

“I will explain all eventually, you must begin. You don’t have much time.”

**-X-**

Sonic jolted awake, he slowly stood up and walked into his main room, the Chaos Emerald was still resting on the table. He knew not to ignore the warning he had received, some unknown force had been awoken in the world, and only the Chaos Emeralds could stop it. How exactly, he didn’t know yet, still, he needed to try and track down the others. He already had one, that left six to go. He consulted back to his maps, he had heard multiple rumors about the Chaos Emeralds, he just needed to find where the next one was.

He prepared his bag with supplies, including a large amount of credits. He figured he would be gone for a while. After consulting over the maps for a while he discovered where the next Emerald may be. He set himself off in the Tornado, after flying over the ocean for about three excruciating hours, he finally arrived. Touching down, he exited the plane and set off into the trees.

“Westside,” he thought aloud. “Geez, it’s been how long?”

Westside was one of his favorite islands for hunting, it supposedly had one more secret to uncover. As he continued into the trees, he was unaware of a single sapphire eye following his every move.

**-X-**

Sonic traversed deep into the forest, he had an idea as to where the Emerald might be, a few years back he remembered seeing similar carvings to the ones at the last temple, maybe they could help him figure out where to look. He marched toward his destination, his only companion was the occasional rustling of leaves. He checked in his bag again and produced the Chaos Emerald, its glow had brightened since he had arrived, Sonic had no idea what this meant, but it was an interesting observation nonetheless. The plants to his right rustled slightly and Sonic stopped, he could have sworn he saw something. Stowing the Emerald he approached the brush, nothing immediately appeared to attack him, and he figured it was just some small animal or gust of wind.

He continued on his trek, eventually arriving outside of a set of ruins. Noting now, he saw similar ornate carvings to the last temple. This one looked to be in even poorer shape then the last, overgrown with plant life and vines. He could try and venture into it now, however, it was beginning to get dark, and the lack of natural light could heavily impede his vision. Sonic found it better to wait until morning to try and explore it. Pulling out a small sleeping mat, he laid himself beneath the night sky until he fell asleep.

Shortly afterward, a figure exited the brush near him, slowly stepping over to the bag, he started to rummage through its contents until finally, he produced the Chaos Emerald, smiling to himself, he started to back away, staying as silent as possible. Just as he thought he was in the clear he heard the hedgehog from earlier speak to him.

“You know,” He began. “Its not nice to steal things that don't belong to you.”

Instead of returning, he broke into a run, feeling the familiar sensation of fear course through him. _“Just don’t let him catch you, and you’ll be fine!”_ He mentally yelled at himself, as he did so, he was stuck in the back, tumbling to the dirt below. _“How the heck did he get here so fast!?”_

He looked back up at his assailant, now completely overcome with fear. He threw the Emerald away from himself.

“T- Take it, just please don’t hurt me!” He cried, scared for what punishment he might receive.

**Alright guys, that’s it for the first chapter. Feel free to let me know how I did and if there’s any way I can improve! Until next time!**


	2. The Freak

**Alright guys, I'm back with another chapter! I'm enjoying writing this so far, so you guys get a double update! Let's get started!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**The Freak** _

Sonic looked down at the now cowering figure before him. He recognized him as a fox of sorts, he had bright orange fur, with a white patch across his chest. What instantly stood out to Sonic though was the kit's tails, plural, two bright orange tails were pressed against the kit's back. The fox had more to him than just this abnormality. Accompanying his singular sapphire eye was a brown and gray patch, it covered his right eye and wrapped around his head, what looked to be a lens of some sort was positioned in its center. Sonic walked back over to retrieve the Emerald the fox had thrown, he grabbed it before turning back to the kit, still cowering in fear.

"You mind telling me why you thought stealing was ok?" He asked, a tinge of anger in his voice.

The kit had moved into a fetal position by now, he started fidgeting with fingers, "Because, I didn't think I- I would get caught."

Sonic signed, "Kid, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to know the real reason."

"You're- You're not?"

Sonic nodded, as he did he realized something else strange about the kit, his right hand almost looked like it was made of some sort of metal, the 'glove' he was wearing over it was entirely made from steel. _"What has this kid been through?"_  He asked himself.

"I promise, I won't hurt you."

"Well, It's- It's just I saw you had another one of those power stone things and-"

"Wait, you have one of these?" Sonic asked, holding up the Chaos Emerald.

"Y- Yeah…"

"Can you show me where it is?"

"I guess."

Sonic extended his hand out to the kitsune and pulled him to his feet. The kit turned and beckoned for Sonic to follow him. Sonic did so, the kit looked over his shoulder occasionally, as if he was scared of something. Sonic didn't know exactly of what, and he couldn't find anything each time he checked. Eventually the two of them arrived at a small cave of sorts. Entering into the cave, Sonic spotted a small cot over against one of the walls, fragments of machinery were dotted across the floor. The fox walked over to a table and grabbed a gemstone waiting there. Unlike Sonic's the stone was a bright red, the kit handed him the Emerald. Sonic, looking it over, noticed part of it had been chipped off, a fragment was missing from the top of the stone.

"Was it damaged when you found it?"

"N- No, it wasn't."

"Well how'd it happen?"

"I needed something to power this." The kit replied, pointing to his right hand.

"What do you mean by power?"

"The stone almost works like a battery, it can power things."

Sonic nodded in response, "One more thing, I never got your name."

"Miles Prow-" He began before stopping himself, he looked down at his feet, "Miles, my name's Miles."

"Well Miles, you seem like a smart kid, I think you can help me."

"Thanks, but you're wasting your time, I can't help anybody," he replied, continuing to look down at his feet.

"Who says that?" Sonic asked.

"Everyone on this island, and the one before that, and the one before that." Miles added softly sighing as he did so.

Sonic's face instantly took on a look of concern. "Miles, you seem like you've been through a lot, do you want to share any of it?"

"Why would you want to hear from a freak?"

"You're not a freak Miles-"

"Yes I am!" The kitsune interrupted "I am a freak!"

Miles started to cry, "All I do is cause problems for everyone!"

Sonic tried to comfort Miles as he buried his head into his shoulder. The kitsune sobbed uncontrollably for a while, eventually, exhausted from his emotional outburst, the kitsune had fallen asleep. Sonic picked him up and placed him into his cot, before he set up his own sleeping mat and joined Miles in sleep.

**-X-**

Sonic woke up the next morning, yawning, he looked up onto the nearby cot, only to find it empty. He looked around out of concern for the kitsune. Before standing himself up to check his bag, the Chaos Emerald was still there, however, some of his credits appeared to be missing. He walked out of the cave and started looking around for Miles, he was nowhere to be found outside, darting into the trees, he continued his search for Miles, eventually he found Miles lying face down just inside the forest. What looked to be his eye patch sat neglected nearby, turning the kitsune over, he was shocked by what he saw, his nose was bleeding profusely, and he had multiple bruises visible across his face and chest, however, what concerned him most was his eye. Across his face, and over his eye, was a long scar, easily visible due to the lack of fur in the area.

Sonic picked up the kitsune and ran back to the cave, grabbing the eyepatch on a second trip. His injuries didn't look too bad, the bleeding on his nose had slowed significantly by now. Sonic grabbed a set of bandages on a nearby table and tried to clean up some of the blood. Miles stirred as he did so, and slowly his eyes fluttered open.

"Sonic?" He asked slowly, before being interrupted.

"You're alright, just get some rest."

The kitsune slowly closed his eyes again and fell back asleep, Sonic finished cleaning him up and dressing his wounds as he did so.

_"What on earth are they doing to this kid?"_  Sonic asked himself,  _"Nobody should have to live like this."_

Sonic kept himself busy for a while before Miles awoke again, slowly the kitsune sat upright, wincing in pain as he did so. "Sonic, do you know where my eyepatch is?" He asked

"Its on your right Miles," he replied. Finally getting a good look at Miles' injured eye, the iris looked almost cloudy in its appearance.

Miles retrieved his patch and placed it back around his head. Miles slowly rose back to his feet, wincing as he did so.

"Are you ok?" Sonic asked, noticing his pained expression.

"Yeah, I'm alright. I'm used to it."

"That's not exactly what I meant, where does it hurt?"

"I told you I'm fine."

"Dang it Miles! I'm trying to help you!" Sonic yelled, anger tainting his voice.

Miles whimpered in response, taking a step back out of fear.

"I'm sorry Miles," Sonic added. "But you're clearly in pain, I want to help."

Miles nodded before sitting back down, "It feels like I'm being stabbed in my chest."

Sonic noted his response before looking over the kitsune, as he did so, he noticed multiple additional bruises across his chest. After pressing on his chest in a few different areas, the kitsune winced in pain.

"Looks like you've got a broken rib." Sonic began, "There's not a whole lot I can do here, maybe if we took you to a doctor-"

"No!" Miles yelled, his face twisting in pain after. "Its ok, it's not really that bad."

"I'm sorry Miles, but you're a bad liar."

"Just, don't take me there."

Miles zoned out, Sonic noted this.

_"Please!"_  The words echoed in Miles' mind.  _"You have to help me!"_

_"Never you little freak! If you lose your hand you'll only be doing everyone a favor!"_

"Miles?"

The kitsune slowly refocused himself.

"Miles, you are going to need to let me get some help. I'm sure I could find somebody."

The kitsune winced again, "No, nobody will help me."

"Well, then stay right there, I'll be right back."

Sonic returned after a second, he had a small ice pack he had gotten from the nearby village. "Hold this over it, it'll help."

Tails accepted the pack, slowly placing it over his chest. Sighing in relief as he did so.

"Miles, you've clearly been through some things, I need to know what happened."

Miles sighed before beginning, "My parents left me, told me I was a worthless mutant. I was forced to live on my own, everyone on that island told me the same thing my parents did. Eventually, I escaped from the island, toward what I thought would be a new life. Only to find another island with the same idea, I was nothing but a worthless freak. This happened another two times, and each time I ended up with the same reaction. Eventually I got here and just decided to stay, at least that way I wouldn't have to find a new spot to live anymore."

"Miles I'm sorry, but I think you can help me. I've been told to collect seven of these Chaos Emeralds, you seem like a smart enough kid, judging by your hand and everything."

Miles seemingly thought over his offer for a moment, Sonic continued.

"I don't think you really want to stay here either, you can stay with me."

"Really?"

"Really."

Miles smiled at him, "I'd be happy to help."

"Sounds like a plan! But first, is your chest feeling any better?"

"Yeah actually." Miles tried to rise to his feet again, slowly succeeding in doing so. "It feels a lot better."

"Alright, cause the Tornado only has one seat, maybe you could do something about that."

Miles took on a confused look, "What do you mean?"

Sonic beckoned for Miles to come with him as he lead the two of them back to the shore. As they stepped onto the beach, Miles' eyes widened.

"That's yours?" He asked.

"Yep, do you know if you could put another seat into it?"

He looked over the plane for a bit before responding. "I think so, it could take some time though."

"That's cool, as long as you can do it."

They returned to Miles' cave to get supplies. The kitsune seemed excited, occasionally he would still get hit with pain in his chest but it would quickly subside. The duo worked on the Tornado, eventually crafting a makeshift seat for it. It was starting to get dark by the time they finished and Sonic suggested they leave in the morning, the two returned to Miles' cave to get some well earned rest.

**-X-**

Miles ran back to his cave, his hand still felt like it was on fire, looking down at it, he barely recognized his own hand. Why wouldn't they help him? His hand was certainly beyond saving at this point, every bone in it had been pulverized. Miles sat down at his table, he didn't know what to do. A small saw on the edge of his vision caught his attention, could he? Miles grabbed the saw, he looked down at his hand again, he could replace it right?

"Alright Miles," He told himself. "You can do this, you can do this…"

He bit down on his tongue and looked away, slowly lowering the saw to the edge of his still intact bone, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and pulled the saw back.

His scream could be heard across the island.

Miles looked down at the bleeding stump where his hand used to be, "You're gonna be ok." He shakily reassured himself. He started to wrap his arm in bandages, his intact hand shaking as he did so.

"You're gonna be ok," He repeated to himself. He wasn't thinking clearly, shock had fully set in. He finished wrapping his hand before the adrenaline wore off and he promptly fainted.

**Alright, that's it for now. Leave me a review so I know what you guys thought, and follow so your notified of updates! Until next time.**


	3. Signal

**Alright, I'm back with another chapter! The upload error with the last chapter should be fixed. I have a review to answer before we start however.**

**TheGameNguyener: Thanks! That means a lot coming from you, I've got some fun things planned.**

**Fortune Spirit: Thanks for going through and reading it! I've got interesting plans for the story so stay tuned!**

**Alright that's all, let's get started!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Signal** _

Miles bolted awake from the nightmare, he hated having to go through that all again, it shook him enough when he had to do it for real. He looked down at his robotic hand, maybe there had been a way to save it, he didn't really mind his robotic one, but he missed having feeling in his hand. He looked onto the floor and spotted Sonic, fast asleep, his bag sat next to him, maybe he could…

" _No, snap out of it Miles."_ He scolded himself,  _"He's helping you for goodness sake, don't rob him blind!"_

Miles put off his instincts and thought about it for a second, why was Sonic helping him? He was just a no good freak, maybe he felt pity on him? No, that didn't make any sense, nobody had before, what had changed now? He figured he'd have to ask sometime, he shivered a bit as a colder gust of wind blew down the cave he pulled his tails around himself, it always got cold during the nights. He felt warmer after doing so, but it was still bitterly cold, he slowly drifted back off to sleep.

**-X-**

Sonic woke up, the sun was just beginning to rise, he checked on Miles again, the kit was still sleeping soundly on his cot, his tails were adorably wrapped around him self like a blanket.

" _He's pretty cute,"_ Sonic thought to himself. _"_ _Hopefully he'll be able to help out."_

Sonic stood up and repacked his bag, as he did so, Miles stirred in his sleep. Sonic froze for a moment before the fox relaxed and he continued to prep for the trip ahead.

Finally finishing, he exited the cave and walked down to the shore, the Tornado was waiting. He started to check over all the instruments to be sure they were prepared. He returned to the cave after double checking over everything. Miles was just starting to wake.

"Morning," the kitsune yawned.

"Ready?" Sonic asked.

"Pretty much, there isn't much to pack in the first place."

"Cool, I'll be down by the Tornado, I've already checked everything off so I'm ready to go when you are."

"Alright, be there in a second."

Sonic nodded at him before leaving and waiting by the Tornado, Miles appeared a few minutes later, he had a small bag with him but not much else.

"Let's get moving, I've been standing here for hours!" Sonic added.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you wait…"

"It was a joke kid, you're alright."

"Oh, well sorry for making-"

"Miles, you don't need to apologize for everything you know." Sonic added, grinning.

Miles smiled back at him, "I know, I'm just excited!"

"Clearly," Sonic added.

Miles climbed into the back seat of the Tornado, Sonic climbed into the pilot's seat and put on his fight goggles, the plane lurched to life, and slowly ascended into the air.

"So long you useless island!" Miles yelled from the back of the plane as it started to rise.

After they had gained enough altitude, Sonic looked back at Miles, he was staring down at the ocean below them, seemingly mesmerized by the view.

"You liking this?" Sonic yelled back to him.

"Yes, it feels amazing! I wish I could always feel like this!"

"You know, when I first saw your tails my first thought was if whether or not they would work as a propeller!"

Miles laughed at the remark, "A flying fox? Yeah right!"

Their laughter slowly died down, and he began to really consider the idea. Could he fly? He supposed it was possible, they would just need to rotate fast enough. He looked down at the water below him, if he went for it, could he catch himself before he hit the water?

" _Don't be stupid Miles, you're not a bird! There's no way you'd generate enough lift to carry yourself!"_

Miles decided to listen to the voice of reason in his head, it was a stupid idea anyways.

They sat in the plane, eventually touching down just outside Sonic's house.

Miles jumped out of the plane onto the grass below, Sonic followed him.

"Welcome!" Sonic added, letting Miles into his house. "Just make yourself at home for now."

"Thanks, this certainly beats my cave."

"That's a fact, being totally honest with you, you deserved better than that."

"I'm not really sure about that," Miles sighed.

"Geez, liven up a little bit! Let's get started, those Chaos Emeralds won't find themselves!"

"I guess you're right."

"Alright, so what's the plan little guy?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've got no ideas!" Sonic added, throwing his hands in the air. "You're the genius around here."

Miles thought over his comment for a second, "Well, we could build something that would let us pinpoint the locations of the other Emeralds."

"Could you do that?"

"I think so, I accidentally did it a few years back. If I could just recreate it."

"Well, what do you need, I've got some stuff lying around that I normally use for the Tornado."

"Let me take a look then." They continued out to his garage, Miles looked over everything present. "Well, I could use some of the steel for the frames, but that's about it, I didn't think there would be much here anyways, electronics are different from planes."

"Well, we could go out and get some parts, how's that sound?"

"I'm, not really comfortable with that." Miles added.

"Why not? Is it about your tails?"

"Yeah, I'm just-"

"Give me one second!"

Sonic dashed off and returned with a short piece of rope.

"I could tie them together!" He suggested, "They wouldn't even be able to tell!"

Miles looked at him and nodded, Sonic went to tie them together before Miles stopped him.

"I'd actually prefer if I did it, I'm just, not comfortable with other people touching my tails."

Sonic looked at his confused for a second before he shrugged and handed him the rope, Miles tied it around them in the back. Before looking in a mirror. It did not look convincing.

"Well, so much for that-"

"Hey wait, it will work, just let me do it."

"I don't know, are you sure?"

"Positive!"

Miles sighed and handed Sonic back the rope, "Just be gentle." He added.

"I will."

He looped it around the tips of the tails and pulled the knot tight, Miles let out a soft yelp as he did and Sonic loosened it a bit. After he had finished, he stepped back and Miles check it in the mirror again. It looked pretty convincing, his now singular tail was rather large but it would work for the time being.

"Thanks Sonic," He added.

"No problem, sorry if I hurt you a bit when I tightened it."

"No, you're alright. It wasn't that bad."

"The last time you told me that, you had a broken rib…"

"I mean it this time!"

The two set off into the city, Miles grabbing anything they could need to construct the tracker.

Eventually they returned to the house, Miles emptied the box of parts onto the table in the main room. "Alright," he added. "That should be it."

"Geez, and I though building a plane was hard enough."

"Their difficult in their own ways, this shouldn't take too long, a few hours at best."

"Few hours!" Sonic yelled as Miles shrunk down, had he done something wrong?

Sonic noted his friend's reaction and tried to retract his statement. "I mean, that's fine, but I hoped we'd be able to start sooner."

Miles seemingly relaxed a bit, "If I could make it faster, I would, but I cant rush it."

"Alright well, I'll be around, come get me when you're done."

Miles nodded at his comment and turned back to his pile of stuff. Sonic went out to the city, he hadn't been on a run today so he needed to get his energy out.

**-X-**

Miles continued to work for a bit, Sonic's comment from the flight over here still puzzled him. Eventually he couldn't help himself and stepped outside, he tested his tails' ability to spin themselves, they were more than capable of spinning, after looking around to make sure nobody was watching he jumped up and tried spinning his tails as fast as he could. He proceeded to land face first back into the dirt, standing himself back up and dusting himself off, he tried once again. Only to experience the same result.  _"Stupid,"_ he thought to himself as he went to walk back inside. _"Who'd ever heard of a flying fox?"_

He stepped back into the house and double checked that he had gotten all the dirt off himself, he didn't need anybody noticing his momentary lapse in judgement, he continued his work on the scanner, it was just about finished anyways and they could get started on tracking down the remaining Emeralds, if Sonic had been correct, there was another five to locate. He just hoped they be as easy to find as the other two.

Not long after his test from earlier, the scanner looked to be operational, powering it on, he scanned the green Emerald on the table with him, it locked on to the energy signal and started scanning for similar energy outputs.

"Finally!" He exclaimed, as seven additional energy signatures appeared on the display. "Wait, why are there seven, shouldn't there be five?"

He messed with the display and internals for a minute, however, it didn't change anything, it still always displayed seven additional targets.

" _That's, strange."_  He thought to himself,  _"Maybe it'll fix itself?"_

He left the house, to find Sonic himself. The hedgehog was nowhere to be found and he hadn't returned recently.  _"Wonder where he's off at?"_

**-X-**

Sonic was having the time of his life. He hadn't really been on a run since Westside when he was with Miles. The kid didn't really have a chance at keeping up with him, so he didn't really use his speed with him. He just enjoyed the feeling of not really being slowed down for a moment, Miles was smart, he'd give him that, but that was about it. Speaking of him, maybe he had finished by now. He started back toward the house and began to decelerate as he got closer, eventually coming to a complete stop just outside, he stepped in and Miles was relaxing in the living room.

"You're back!" He exclaimed, "I finished the scanner, but somethings a bit off."

"What do you mean by off?"

"There's a total of nine energy signatures on it, including the two emeralds we already have. Meaning there's seven more."

Sonic, now intrigued by the discovery, looked at the small pad Miles had made, sure enough, seven more energy patterns were visible on the screen.

"That's weird, there should only be five more..."

"That was my thought, maybe it's off somewhere."

"Well we might as well get started, maybe you can fix it along the way."

"Sounds like a plan."

They both climbed into the Tornado and headed off, Miles directing the craft in the right direction toward one of the signatures. Eventually they came across it.

"Well, if I was an ancient mysterious gemstone," Sonic began as they continued to fly toward the source. "A big floating island is probably a solid bet as to where I'd be."

"How is that even possible!? Why does it float!?"

"Don't question it."

"It just-" Miles grumbled, "That's just weird."

The island in question appeared to be covered mostly in jungle on its surface, Sonic had some difficulty figuring out somewhere to land. Eventually, with enough time, they touched down.

"So," Sonic asked, "Which way is it?"

"It should just be a little way in this way," Miles added, "It's getting stronger."

"Alright, well, let's get moving!"

Miles nodded and the two of them set off into the trees.

**Alright, that's it for the time being, please leave your thoughts in a review so I know how I'm doing and follow so you can be notified whenever I update! Until next time!**


	4. Broken Bond

**Alright everyone, I've got a few reviews to answer before we get started!**

**Mitha Sentro: Thanks, I got my inspiration from an art piece that I linked in Chapter 1, but their personalities really weren't decided on, they've been very fun to write based on how their past would have been and how they look!**

**Fortune Spirit: I plan on doing so! Thanks for the comment!**

**Nia: Glad to know you're interested!**

**That's all for now, let's get going!**

**Parallel Lives**

**Broken Bond**

"Look at the size of that thing!"

"I'm more worried about how we're going to get it out of here..."

"We'll cross that bridge later."

Sonic was currently in awe about the size of the gem they had come across, it was about the size of him. Miles was less so impressed and more concerned, he had expected it to be the same size as the other two, how they were going to carry it was a challenge.

"There's no way they just leave it lying around right?" Miles replied, "I mean, if they do, I'm not complaining."

"Well, only one way to find out!" Sonic added before stepping out of the bush toward the shrine.

Miles, not having anything else better to do, followed along behind him. They climbed the steps and stood beside the stone.

"Sooo, what now?" Miles asked.

"I'm not sure, to be honest, I expected some form of trap or something by now. Aren't you supposed to be the planner in this relationship?"

Miles didn't respond, simply staying frozen in place.

"Miles?"

"I can't move..." He grumbled.

"What?"

"I can't-"

Miles was interrupted as something whizzed past the two of them. Sonic turned to look where it came from, a red echidna stood at the base of the shrine, his skin was covered in white markings of sorts, and he had metal claws extending from both his wrists.

"Thiefs!" he spoke, "That was your one warning!"

"Woah buddy, you got it all wrong, I'm not a thief!" Sonic yelled back at him, "I mean I can't speak for my friend here."

Miles grumbled something in response, he was still restrained in place by unknown forces.

"But if you'll excuse me, we'll be needing this." Sonic charged at the Echidna with blinding speed, striking him in the chest, as he did, Miles fell to the floor.

"Since when can you move that fast!?" He asked standing back up, "Also, are you trying to make him angry?"

"I'll stall, you figure out how to get that thing out of here."

Miles nodded and turned to the Emerald, he tried to pick it up, to no avail, it was incredibly heavy. The gem suddenly began to glow, and he turned back to Sonic, whom of which was frozen mid-kick, the Echidna had returned.

He thought through a specific command to his arm and his hand retraced into its internals revealing a cannon beneath. He fired three shots at their assailant, the Echidna tried his best to dodge but was stuck by one of the blasts, as he was, Sonic resumed his kick, striking nothing but the air.

"When did you find the time to add that!?" Sonic asked while dodging a strike.

Miles ran back over, "I suggest we bail, there's no way we can get the Emerald out of here."

Sonic acknowledged his response as he watched the fox dart back off into the trees. He followed him after providing enough time for their escape.

"Alright, any other crazy abilities we'd like to tell each other about?" Sonic asked.

"Not really, that's about it." The fox replied.

"Cool, also, let's get this one last, once we have a plan."

"Hey, that was my idea!"

"Well it was my idea to bring you along."

"Can't argue with that, if we don't want to head all the way back, there's another signature close by, we could fly to it."

"How close?"

Miles held up the scanner to Sonic, "Very, we're practically on top of it."

"Alright, sounds like a plan, let's get back to the Tornado."

The kitsune nodded as they headed back and jumped in the plane, the signal they were pursuing appeared to be at a dock of some sort.

"Alright, so the signal looks to be at this dock, we land and track it down."

"Then get back here and leave." Sonic finished, "I've got it down."

Miles rolled his eye at the last statement, "Just stay focused, we're here for one thing."

"Where's your adventurous spirit?"

Miles groaned at the question, "Doesn't matter."

"Just remember who's letting you stay around."

Miles was quiet the rest of the time they were landing, he placed the Tornado just outside the small port town and shut it off. They both clambered out of the plane and started toward the buildings.

"Alright, it's getting closer, it should be somewhere around here."

"Cool, how far out?"

"Close, I can't give you much more than that, it has its problems tracking precisely at close range."

"Should we spread out?" Sonic asked.

"Probably, we could search faster that way, I'll take the left, you take the right?"

"Sounds like a plan, meet back here when you're done."

The two split up and went their separate ways, trying to track down the Chaos Emerald.

**-X-**

Miles continued consulting his tracker, it mentioned it was somewhere close. He just didn't know where, he was more absentmindedly thinking about what Sonic had mentioned while they were landing.

 _"Dang it Miles!"_ He thought to himself, _"You got your first friend ever and now you're blowing it!"_

_"I know, he's just so annoying, it's starting to get on my nerves."_

_"Well don't let it! Do you want to stay stuck on that island!?"_

_"I would have gotten off eventually,"_ he told himself. _"I just needed time."_

_"Time to what!? Figure out what island you were going to strand yourself on next?"_

Miles tuned out his inner self, they would have a chat later, he needed to keep looking.

He continued pacing in and out of any building he could enter, until eventually he decided to ask around, nobody had seen or even heard of a gemstone that fit his description. He figured some of the deckhands might be worth an ask.

"Hello?" He asked, somewhat timidly. "I have a question."

"Beat it kid, we're busy." The weasel told him.

"Just one thing."

"Alright! What do you want?"

"I was wondering if you'd seen like a diamond shaped gem anywhere around here?"

The weasel smiled at him, "I actually think I have." He looked up to the ship by him. "Boss! This kid's asking about the gem!"

A brown raccoon wearing a green vest and tan gloves walked over to the rail. "Well, why don't you show it to him Fang." she yelled from above.

Miles suddenly had a feeling that he probably shouldn't have asked. "A- Actually, I should p- probably be going." He stammered.

"What's the rush kid? We just want to help ya."

Miles was grabbed on the wrist, and he instinctively morphed his arm into a cannon and opened fire.

**-X-**

Sonic continued wandering his side of the town, he hadn't had much luck yet finding what they were looking for, but he figured it wouldn't be long until they inevitably found it.

 _"We should be going by now."_  He thought in the back of his mind.  _"More accurately, you, should be going right about now."_

He thought over what his mind was saying, while it was true Miles was slowing him down like crazy, he couldn't get mad at him for it.

_"Why not? Either keep up or get left, that's how it works right?"_

Sonic, for once, agreed with his thoughts. _"Alright,"_  He began.  _"We finish this hunt and that's it. I ask for the tracker, heck, I paid for it, and find him somewhere to stay. Everything goes back to normal good old treasure hunting!"_

Sonic liked his new plan, Miles was starting to get on his nerves a bit with how negative he was all the time and that definitely needed to go.

_"You've outdone yourself this time Sonic! A plan that actually works!"_

His inner monologue was interrupted by, what he thought was a muted gunshot. He looked around the pier and, after a moment, spotted Miles being dragged into a ship by a weasel, he looked to be unconscious.

Sonic moved himself over toward the ship. It was still being loaded with boxes, they were being carried by koalas into the ship's hold.

_"Just ignore it, this is your chance to get rid of him!"_

_"I'm not just going to let him get kidnapped! Why am I even wasting time waiting here!"_

Sonic started to sneak around the dock, using the crates as cover. He moved into the hold of the ship, nothing but boxes were visible, he ascended a short staircase to a higher deck, a few rooms were present. As he looked into some of them, he was struck by a object to the head. He collapsed to the floor, dazed but still conscious.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a stow away here, don't we." The voice behind him spoke.

He vaguely felt himself being lifted up and carried, his vision was still swimming and darkness threatened to consume him. He felt himself being thrown into a room before the door was slammed and locked behind him. He stayed where he was on the floor, he felt really tired, and his head was against something soft. He allowed the darkness at the edges of his vision to consume him as he lost consciousness.

**-X-**

Sonic slowly awoke, he had no idea how long it had been, but he could feel the ship moving underneath him.

"Enjoy your beauty sleep?" A familiar voice asked.

Sonic looked up and saw Miles awaiting him.

"You like the pillow?" He asked.

Sonic looked down at where his head had been and found one of Miles' tails laying on the floor. That explained what he had been laying on.

"I'm sorry," He went to say.

"You're alright, I've only been awake for about an hour now."

"Where are we?"

"In a cell of some sort, feels like a boat to me."

Sonic was instantly on high alert. "Wait, like, in the ocean!?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

Sonic didn't really want to reveal himself entirely to Miles at this moment, so he made something up.

"I just wanted to be sure."

"Well, where else would we be? In a sink?"

"Shut it, now let's figure out how to get out of here."

Miles agreed, they started to look over their small cell, there wasn't anything that would help them escape. Sonic looked out the bars on the door, he couldn't make out much, they were connected to a hallway of sort.

"Dang it Miles, what were you thinking!?" Sonic asked.

"What did you want me to do? Just give up looking?"

"Kind of yes!"

"Well that's dumb of you, why would I stop looking, you brought me here to help didn't you?"

 _"Now's your chance."_  Sonic's mind told him.

Sonic elected to take it, "No! I brought you here so you could build something for me! Not so you could tag along like some kind of sidekick!"

"But, I am your sidekick…"

"More like charity case! I was having you come with me to build a tracker for me! After that, we were done!"

"I thought that-"

Sonic grabbed the kitsune's eye patch across his head and pulled, it snapped on the back of his head.

"I don't care what you think! We are not friends!"

Sonic wound up and threw the patch at the wall, shattering it into pieces. Miles looked completely stunned, before he slowly collapsed to the floor, wrapping his tails around himself.

"I just thought, that I finally had a friend…"

Sonic's anger started to lower itself, he felt a certain sense of dread.

"Miles I didn't mean-"

"You don't need to apologize, I knew it was too good to be true. I'm just a freak, just like I always have been." Miles sniffled.

Sonic attempted to comfort the kitsune, only for it to be rejected.

"Don't," Miles responded. "Just leave me alone!"

Sonic recoiled in response, he sighed before standing back up and looking out the cell window.  _"What were you thinking!? What did you think was going to happen!?"_

Sonic continued ignoring eye contact with the kitsune out of guilt. Not that he could anyway, considering Miles was doing the same out of sorrow. They both continued to hate themselves for the remainder of the day. Miles for allowing himself to be used as easily as he had, and Sonic for destroying any chances he had for a new friendship.

**Alright, that's all for now, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and follow so you can be notified when I update. Until next time.**


	5. Forgotten Hero

**Alright, before we start today, I have a review to answer.**

**TheGameNguyener: Miles is rather insecure about himself, he's been bullied his entire life by everyone he knew after all, and that's not even taking his parents into account. He already doesn't feel worthy because he's not even sure if he should deserve it, and Sonic certainly isn't helping the fact by yelling at him.**

**Alright, that's it for now, let's get this going!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Forgotten Hero** _

Both adventurers still felt awful, Sonic a bit more than Miles at this point for snapping at him as he had, Miles felt bad for obvious reasons, but he was used to verbal abuse like this by now. He had been the victim of it for years after all, this one stung particularly bad however because he had started to see Sonic as a friend of sorts.

Sonic tried to keep his mind busy by looking over the room continuously to see if there was any details they missed on their first look, he couldn't help but feel guilty though, especially after he looked to where Miles' eye-patch still sat, shattered into pieces across the floor.

"Miles," he began. "I just want to say-"

"I told you to leave me alone…" Miles replied, "All I'm going to do is bother you…"

Sonic hesitantly let it go again, he knew he should apologize at this point, but the kitsune didn't seem to want anything to do with him right now, and frankly, Sonic didn't blame him. The kid had been through a lot, even from the little he knew about him at this point he could figure that out. He was clearly not very sound of mind.

"Miles, we still need to figure a way out of here."

The kitsune gave no response in return.

"Look, I'm sorry for what I said, I'm just not used to having to slow down for somebody else. If you hate me, I completely understand, but we still need to work together here. Again, I'm so sorry I snapped at you."

The tails Miles had protectively wrapped around himself loosened a bit, he turned to Sonic. Sonic felt a pang of guilt looking at the long scar across his face.

"Alright…" He reluctantly spoke, standing from his position on the floor, Sonic noted his tails were still dragging behind him as he walked rather than flicking up and down like they normally did.

"Thanks, I could maybe get us out of here if we could find something to open that door from the outside."

Miles slowly looked around the room, before stepping to the door and looking out of the bars. "Could you pick this?" He asked.

Sonic thought for a moment, he had picked locks before, but not from the inside of the door.

"Possibly, I would need something to pick it with though."

Miles scanned the room again before walking over and picking up a piece of his eye-patch. "Considering this is already broken, we could try and use something here."

Sonic winced at Miles comment, he had been the one to break it after all.

"Again, sorry about that…"

The kitsune made no indication he heard the comment and continued to shift through some of the pieces. He produced a small steel ring. "Would this work?"

"It needs to be straight enough to fit in the lock, I don't think the ring will work."

"Well obviously not, but if I could break it somewhere, would it work then?"

"Probably, how do you plan on breaking it though?"

Miles started to twist the metal circle back and forth repeatedly, eventually, after several minutes, the now frayed material broke apart. The fox handed him the curved metal rod.

"That's perfect!" Sonic added, "How many of those can you get?"

"There's about four more in the lens, I could pull what's left apart to get them."

"Well let's get going, speaking of which, can you still see out of that eye?"

"A little… Everything's fuzzy, but I can make out general shapes."

"How'd it even happen in the first place?"

"I… got cornered… Honestly, I think they only let me live because they needed somebody to take their anger out on."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that Miles…"

"It's alright…" He added solemnly.

The two continued to work on disassembling the components of Miles' eye-patch, both were utterly silent as they did so, eventually they had assembled enough of the makeshift picks that Sonic felt confident enough to try at the lock. Holding the now straightened steel parts, he slowly stuck his hand through the bars to reach down to the lock.

Gently inserting the rods into the lock, he started moving them around. He knew there were small pins that all needed to be pressed simultaneously to get it to open. He felt some resistance on one of the pins and he left that one there. He continued to move the others around until he felt a second click into place, he transferred it to his other hand and continued. As soon as he made contact with the third, the door released itself and swung open.

"Got it!" Sonic added.

Miles actually smiled at the statement, before looking both ways down the hall. Nobody was instantly visible, so the two of them snuck out of their cell and quietly closed the door. Miles changed his arm into a cannon, just to be prepared.

"Couldn't we have used that?" Sonic asked.

"No, the energy would have just dissipated when it hit the door, it's designed to stun not kill."

"Cool, so what's the plan here?"

Miles looked deep in thought for a moment before he answered, "We need to either escape or take the ship from them. Escaping doesn't really look like an option here, unless you've got another boat lying around. So we'll need to somehow take the ship."

"How do you propose we do that?"

"I'm still thinking that part through. It's at least six against two."

"I can take them!"

Miles looked unamused by the comment before continuing with his explanation. "We could try and get some of the crew on our side. That would help."

"How so?"

"Easy, mutiny. We don't need to keep the ship, they can have it once we get back, there's got to be some of them who want to be in charge."

"How do you plan to get some of them to help us?"

"I'm still working on that part."

"Well we're going to have to get that figured out before hand, otherwise we'll just end up back in that cell again."

"I know... This boat is starting to make me sick."

"If you need to sit down for a second you can."

"I'll be fine, just, feeling a bit dizzy all of a sudden."

"Alright, just make sure you're good before trying to do anything."

Miles gave him a thumbs up before slowly sitting down and clutching his head. He had been on a boat before, it was just extremely strange to not be able to see any water or landmarks to keep his head straight.

Sonic, as much as he didn't want to admit it, was freaking out. He was on a boat, in the middle of the ocean! If he fell off... That wouldn't happen right? He hoped that Miles knew how to swim, just in case if he did go plummeting to his doom.

The kitsune, after a few minutes, stood himself back up. "Alright, I should be better now. The whole world's not spinning anymore."

"You sure about that? If you still need to sit down-"

"I told you, I'm alright." Miles said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Sonic took this as the notion he should back off a bit, he was still trying to make up for his outburst earlier, but his attempts to do so seems to be grating on the kit's nerves.

"If you say so."

Miles eyes rolled at the statement before he looked out of the door. He quickly pulled his head back inside. "Somebody's coming," He whispered. "I'll stun him as he goes past."

"Shouldn't we leave him conscious, so we can convince him to help us?"

"You're probably right, grab him as he goes past, I'll stun if all goes wrong."

Sonic nodded and positioned himself by the door, he could hear footsteps approaching from the left, as they got closer, Sonic suspected that he was close enough to grab and went for it, he managed to grab them around the head, muffling his surprised scream.

Miles attempted to calm him down. "We're not going to hurt you, we just want to talk."

"How did you guys even get out?" Their captive asked.

Sonic recognized him as one of the koalas that he had seen loading the ship, he was wearing a tan hat and a short blue tie.

"That doesn't matter," Miles replied. "We're here to offer you a deal."

"And why shouldn't I report you to the captain as soon as I get out of here?"

"Because then you won't get this ship."

The captive suddenly looked intrigued. "What do you mean by that?"

"If you help us escape, we'll give you the ship, we just need two things on it."

"What do you want?"

"There's two diamond shaped gems on board here, both of those, everything else you and anybody who helps us can have."

He looked to be thinking about the offer before he continued. "Marine isn't the kindest captain in the world, I figure I could get you some more help."

Miles smiled at the comment. "Sweet, the more help we can get the better. Sorry for, you know, kidnapping you from the hall."

"Not an issue, what's your guy's names?"

"I'm Miles, this is Sonic."

"Name's Muzy, I've always wanted to run my own boat, but I've been forced into working as a deckhand under Marine. It's about time I did something about it."

"Glad to have you on board. Who'd you have in mind to join?"

"I've got a couple I could probably convince, I'll be back, sending some your way."

"That's great! Any help is appreciated."

Muzy nodded before heading back above deck. Miles and Sonic waited in their hiding place, every hour or so, another crew member would come down with him and introduce themselves, most were koalas, same as Muzy. They were deckhands that didn't have a choice being on the boat, in all, he had found another three to join.

"That's puts us at six members." Miles stated, "We might be able to do it with that many."

"More is always better, besides, Muz isn't back yet. He could have more."

"Yeah, we might not need them though."

"Well it's more help, we're going to need all we can get."

Miles agreed with the statement, any additional help was nice. They could use anything.

The duo heard footsteps outside in the hall. Slowly, they prepared to introduce themselves. As Muzy rounded the corner, Sonic and Miles noticed who he had with him. It was a green bird with crumpled feathers.

"Alright, Sonic, Miles, this is Bean, he's-"

Before another word could be uttered, Miles had dove into him, tackling him to the ground, before snarling at the newcomer.

"Miles! What are you doing!?"

The kitsune didn't respond to Sonic's comment. Landing a strike against the bird's face. Bean backed away as Miles was pulled off of him and restrained by Sonic.

"What the heck you freak!" Bean added. "What was that for!?"

Miles still attempted to break free of Sonic's grip, the hedgehog was starting to get concerned about his behavior.

"Wait…" Bean began, "You're  **that** freak aren't you? To think I find you all the way out here! Where have you been hiding from me!?"

Sonic and Muzy both looked extremely confused.

"Well!?" The bird continued to yell. "I'm out of here! Have fun rotting in jail you freak!"

Muzy went to stop him before Bean shoved him out of the way, Miles had started to calm a bit, but was still aggressively trying to escape Sonic's grasp.

"What in world was that!?" Sonic yelled at Miles. "Why did you attack him!?"

"I… I- I didn't attack him…"

"Then what was that!? So much for nice friendly introduction!"

"I, don't know why… It just-"

"Uhh, you two," Muzy, whom was keeping watch added. "We've got a problem."

Sonic left the very confused fox and looked down the hall. Bean was back, and behind him was the bear who had attack him earlier, along with the weasel who had captured Miles.

The group of crewmen entered into the room and cornered them, with the tight space, there wasn't much room to avoid.

"Now what do we have here?" A new voice spoke. "How did you lot manage to break out of your cage?"

"I've told you before Captain," Bean added. "The orange one is quite resourceful."

Miles could practically feel his blood boil at the sight of Bean, he wanted nothing more than to break out of the bear's grip.

"Well, seems you were correct…" The figure fully appeared, she was a shorter brown raccoon wearing a green vest and tan gloves. "Well nobody messes with Captain Marine and gets away with it! Bring them up above, I've got an idea."

Sonic, Miles, and Muzy were forcefully dragged up to the surface deck. "Let's see, I'm willing to make you an offer." Marine added as they arrived. "You can either join me, or, I'll throw you overboard into the ocean to drown! Muzy, you already had your choice, so you'll go last, I want you to see what you've done."

Bean spoke up, "Remember Captain, the fox is mine!"

"I'm well aware, you've only mentioned it five times." Marine replied, "I will say though, it is an honor to have the hero of Cocoa Island on my ship."

The three of them looked confused, they had no idea who she was talking about.

"Alright then," She forcefully grabbed Sonic and dragged him toward the edge of the board. "So what will it be? Serve, or die?"

Sonic's fear was overwhelming at this point, he knew he couldn't join Marine's crew however.

"I'd rather drown!"

"So be it then!" Marine dragged him over to an opening in the railing, "Enjoy your swim."

Sonic felt himself being forcefully thrown over the edge of the boat, his mind was freaking out at this point, as he plummeted to the water below.

**Alright, that's all for now. Why did Tails attack Bean? Will Muzy and Sonic survive? Find out next time!**


	6. Captain and Crew

**Alright, I'm back, just so you guys are aware, I'm going on a vacation soon, so I won't be updating during then. Giving everyone a heads up now! Have some reviews from last time that I need to answer!**

**NeckBreak: Sonic's aqua phobia is still present here, and it's going to manifest itself during this chapter.**

**SharpDragonKlaw: They've met each other before, Miles is having some difficulty remembering though.**

**Fortune Spirit: You shouldn't have to wait very long!**

**Let's get going!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Captain and Crew** _

The water felt like ice underneath him, he tried to kick his semi free feet as fast as he could to keep himself above the water.

_"Just calm down Maurice. You're not going to drown."_  He thought to himself.

He continued to sink as the rope binding him started to absorb water, along with his boots, attempting to drag him down to the bottom. He was unable to come up with a plan due to being paralyzed by fear. He hated water, and now, he was in the middle of nowhere, tied up, in the largest body of water on the continent. It was starting to get to him. He just hoped somebody had a plan to help him.

**-X-**

Miles meanwhile, was struggling to free himself from his bonds, with minimal success, Sonic had just been tossed overboard, and he was probably next.

"Alright, Bean, you said this was yours?" Marine added, dragging Miles over by him. Miles felt his anger start rising as she did so, why, he didn't know.

"I've been waiting a long time for this," Bean replied. "I still can't believe that after all this time, of all the places I could find you, this is not where I expected."

"Look, I don't know who you are!" Miles yelled at him.

"How do you not remember me!? You destroyed my life!"

Miles was struck across the face by him out of anger, before he was grabbed again by the bird.

"You listen to me well you freak! You're coming with me, I'm taking you right back to the general. I'll be known as the commander who finally captured you! They'll have to give me back my position!"

"What are you talking about! I couldn't have destroyed your life! I've never seen you!"

"Don't play dumb with me! However, before I bring you in, we're going to have ourselves a little rematch."

Miles was hoisted up into the air by Bean, whom, after rising in the air for a bit, cut the ropes holding him and released him toward the ship below. He plummeted for a while before impacting the deck, breaking through the wood to the floor below.

"What the heck mate!" Marine yelled up at him. "You're ruining my ship!"

Bean descended down and pulled the dazed fox from the wreckage. "Are you trying to mock me!? Why didn't you fly!?"

Miles was barely registering anything he said at the moment, he felt really tired, and was sore all over.

He was vaguely aware of a smaller figure jumping down onto Bean's head causing him to drop the kitsune to the ground, he felt a sharp stabbing pain as he hit the wood.

Bean retreated out into the open air, where he would be more free to move around. Miles' eyes slowly focused in on Muzy. "How'd you get here?" He asked, another wave of pain radiating through him.

"While they were distracted with you and Sonic, one of the other crew members we gathered cut me loose, its chaos up there."

The kitsune painfully smiled, his plan had worked after all.

"Come on kid," Muzy added, lifting Miles to his feet. "You need to go get your friend!"

Miles was suddenly snapped back to reality, Sonic was still in the water, adrenaline started running through him allowing to him partially ignore the stabbing sensations in his chest and back. He clambered up the wreckage of the deck above, into the chaos that was unfolding. The crew members they had recruited were currently in an all out brawl with the rest of the crew. He dashed over to the railing where Sonic had been tossed over, he found the hedgehog thrashing about in the water, he drove in after him, ignoring the spike of pain as he impacted the water.

"Sonic, calm down!" He didn't stop flailing as much as he could. Miles tried to approach him, only to get kicked in the chest by Sonic's flailing. He instantly felt like he was on fire as the surge shot up his injured chest. Resisting the urge to pass out, he tried to calm him again.

"I'm going to grab you. You need to trust me!"

Sonic seemed to acknowledge him this time as when Miles got close again he stopped and allowed himself to be grabbed by the kitsune, whom swam both of them toward the boat.

"Muz!" Sonic yelled, "Throw something down to us!"

Nothing happened for a second, after a moment, a short rope ladder extended itself from the side of the boat. Muzy looked down at the two of them, he descended the ladder and handed Miles a small knife, which he used to cut Sonic's ropes away. They both pulled themselves up onto the boat, where the fight was still ongoing, with Marine attempting to regain control of the ship from the deck. Miles instantly collapsed to the ground panting from exhaustion. He didn't have a lot of time to recover however as he instantly felt himself being picked up and lifted away from the boat.

Coughing, he slowly looked back up at Bean, whom was carrying him. "Let's see you mock me this time!" His captor added before he felt himself being dropped and accelerating toward the deck, he would probably die on impact this time, if not sustain even further injury to himself. He simply surrendered himself to the fall there was nothing he could do, as he approached the ground below, he started to decelerate, looking around he couldn't find any reason for it, until he looked up that it.

His tails were rotating above himself like a propeller, Miles couldn't believe it, he slowly fell to the ground where he promptly collapsed, he couldn't breathe, and felt extremely lightheaded from his venture.

"What just happened?" He asked himself.

As if on cue, he felt overwhelmed with memories, ones he knew were his, but had never accessed before. He found himself on an island, flying between the trees with his tails, he took out multiple birds that were with him. Most astonished at his sudden appearance. Eventually he came across one he recognized as Bean. Miles took him out just the same as he had any other, sending him sprawling to the dirt below, yelling curses at the fox as he left.

He faded back to reality, only to find himself back in the air again, he had been grabbed while he was distracted.

"So you've finally revealed yourself!" Bean stated, "You're a freak, foxes can't fly!"

Miles was dropped again, this time, his body knew what to do as he almost instantly stopped his decent and charged at Bean.

"Finally!" The bird added, dodging out of the way. "Once I defeat you, you'll come with me to the general, I'll make up for my failure years ago and they'll give me back my position as a commander, heck, maybe make me the general!"

Miles charged at him again, as the battle on the deck raged below.

**-X-**

Sonic and their team of deck hands were doing sizable work against Marine and her crew, the sides were relatively even with Sonic, Muz, and a few other deck hands against Marine, Fang, and a polar bear named Bark. When Miles had caught himself, Sonic couldn't help but smile a bit, he knew that they would work! He was preoccupied dealing with Marine at the moment to help, not that he could reach the two of them anyways. Sonic charged into the polar bear, striking him backwards.

"Not so tough unless you're hitting me from behind now are you?"

The bear growled and attempted to swipe at him, Sonic naturally dodged the attack. Before charging up the deck to Marine, striking her in the back. She quickly jumped back to her feet, turning her sword to face him.

"I'm sure we could make a great team it's not to late to reconsider your decision."

"In your dreams lady, plus, this whole boat part isn't really my thing." Sonic shrugged.

"Guess I'll have to make an example of you."

She attempted to jab at him with the sword, Sonic dashed around, only to meet the point of her sword.

"Can't run faster than I can turn now can ya?"

Sonic attempted to catch her off guard a few more time, failing each time. Eventually, she predicted his attack and skinned him across the arm with her blade, blood slowly oozed out of the open wound.

"Ha! Not so confident are ya now mate?"

Sonic didn't reply, instead looking around for anything he could use, he grabbed one of the ropes, normally used for tying the boat ashore and threw it at her, before dashing around to the other side, she turned to face him, only to be struck in the head by the rope coil, sending her sprawling to the ground, Sonic retrieved her dropped sword.

"Muz, got the captain!" He yelled, the koala in question looked up at him and smiled. The deckhands had mostly subdued Fang and Bark. They started to fully restrain the three of them, Sonic looked up and saw Miles slowly descending with Bean in his arms. Miles struck the deck hard as he landed, dropping Bean in the process.

"Miles? You alright?" Sonic asked.

The kitsune slowly attempted to rise to his feet, he was breathing extremely heavily. He was exhausted, and appeared to be in pain. Sonic rushed over and threw his arm over his shoulder, Miles leaned the vast majority of his weight onto Sonic.

"Where does it hurt?" Sonic asked, concerned for the kit's health. The kitsune whimpered as he pointed to his chest.

"Alright, lay down, I'll take a look."

Sonic gently pressed down on Miles' chest on different areas, eventually he yelped loudly as he pressed on his upper right chest, and whimpered as he released pressure. It was the same spot as the other day.

"Miles, can you breathe ok?"

"He shook his head is response, Sonic put the pieces together and figured out exactly what was wrong with the kitsune."

"I think you broke the same rib as the other day, it might have pierced a small hole in your lungs."

Miles' eyes widened at the statement.

"Calm down, considering you can still breathe, I don't think it's that bad, just give it some rest and you'll be fine within the next week or so."

The kit's eyes drifted down before he passed out, exhausted and beaten from all the action.

Sonic picked up the kit in his arms and carried him into the captain's quarters. As much as he knew the fox wasn't going to want to, he needed a doctor. If he didn't, his punctured lung would only get worse, potentially even fatal.

He exited the captains quarters after tucking the wounded fox into the bed. Back on the deck, Muzy had the old crew fully restrained. "You remember our agreement right?" He asked the koala.

"Of course, how could I forget, you've been a great help! Were do you want us to drop you two off?"

"Just somewhere around where you guys found us."

"Can do, I'll fetch the gems for you while I'm at it. Setter, can you fetch both the gems for them?"

One of the other deck hands nodded before descending down into the hold.

Sonic was given, not only the green Emerald Miles had used to power his scanner, but also a bright blue gem, it was almost the color of lightly frozen ice.

"Thank you for all your help!" Muz added, "We'll handle Marine."

Sonic nodded before reentering into the captain's quarters, Miles was still resting in the bed. He allowed himself to relax as the ship continued toward land. The third Emerald in hand.

**Alright, that's it for now! Hope you all enjoyed it! If you did, leave a review to let me know what you thought, and follow to be notified when I update! Until next time!**


	7. Recovery

**Alright, before we get started today, I've got my usual reviews to answer!**

**NeckBreak: Captain Marine and her crew were pretty fun all together to write, but I can see where you're coming from!**

**SharpDragonKlaw: He's going to need some after the beating he took in the last chapter. Thanks for continuing to check out this story!**

**Alright, that's everyone for now, let's get started!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Recovery** _

The boat eventually arrived back at shore again, Sonic was alerted of this by Muzy, whom was gathering additional supplies. He walked over to the bed in the room and gently shook Miles awake.

"Miles, we're back at the dock, time to wake up."

The kitsune groaned in response, but slowly sat upright, wincing as he did.

"We're probably going to need to get that looked at," Sonic added. "It doesn't look like it's getting any better."

"I'll be alright, I've had worse."

"Miles, don't lie to yourself, I know you're scared of seeing a doctor about it, but I won't let anything happen to you."

"What's it to you? I thought we were done, or did you just forget about all of that?"

Sonic instantly was overwhelmed with guilt again, "Bud-"

"Don't 'Bud' me! I'll just, get out of your way…"

Miles slowly rose to his feet and tried to walk to the door, eventually he collapsed out of pain from continuously being stabbed in the chest.

"Alright, if you want to be done, then that's fine. I'm still getting you help though."

"I don't- I don't want to be done though, I thought you didn't want me here…"

"I didn't, mean that Miles, I was just… Angry."

Miles didn't say anything in response as Sonic continued.

"You're a good kid Miles, and I- I don't mind having you around, I'm sorry for saying what I said, I really am."

The kitsune pulled him into a hug, before loosening it slightly due to pressure on his chest.

"Its alright… Its nice having a friend."

They both smiled before Sonic extended his hand out to him.

"Friends?"

"Friends."

They shook on it before Sonic gathered Miles in his arms.

"Alright, just relax. You don't need to hurt yourself anymore than you have."

"Do I really need to get it looked at?"

"Yes, if we don't get that fixed it'll just get worse and worse. I know you're clearly not a fan of doctors, but I promise, I won't let them hurt you."

"Alright, I'll- I'll give it a shot."

"Thanks bud. Now let's get back."

Miles gave him a thumbs up before the two if them left the boat, giving Muzy and his newfound crew a goodbye as they did. They headed back to where they had hid the Tornado and Sonic gently set Miles into the back seat.

The two of them flew back to Sonic's house, the flight home was mostly silent, apart from Miles' occasional coughing. Upon arriving, Sonic removed the kitsune from his seat and started toward a clinic, not going at full speed to avoid injuring the kit further.

"You know, Miles doesn't really fit for you."

"What do you mean?"

"Something just sounds off about it, you need a nickname."

"I don't have any ideas."

"How about Tails?"

Miles thought it over a bit before responding.

"I like it!"

"Cool, Tails it is! One more thing, how did you fly earlier?"

"I'm not really sure… Its just like my body knew how… There was a memory with it, but I don't ever remember it happening."

"Sounds like you've forgotten it, what was the memory about?"

"I was on one of the islands I lived on for a while, fighting some bird soldier things. It was super weird."

"Maybe you've repressed them?"

"What's that?"

"Its where your brain forgets some memories that are too painful to remember." Sonic explained.

"Maybe, I'll let you know if I remember any more."

Sonic nodded and they continued the rest of their trip in silence.

**-X-**

"Alright Tails, you ready?"

"I'm not sure, promise I'll be alright?"

"I won't let any of them hurt you."

"Ok, let's do it…"

Sonic nodded and carried the kit inside he was greeted by a somewhat concerned receptionist.

"Does he need help?" She asked.

"Yeah, I think he's got a broken rib or two, he's also having some difficulty breathing."

"Well," She spoke. "If you bring him in the back hopefully we can do something about that."

Sonic followed her to the back, noting Tails shaking in his arms, the kit had twisted his tails together behind him as well.

"Its alright Tails, she's just trying to help you."

The kitsune didn't respond, seemingly paralyzed by fear.

They were lead into a smaller room for them to wait, Sonic laid Tails down on the bed.

"I'll have the doctor here in just a second." The nurse told them before she left the room.

Sure enough after a few minutes, the doctor entered the room causing Tails to shoot bolt upright in alarm.

"Tails, it's ok. Nobody's going to hurt you."

The doctor came over and started looking Tails over, stopping at his namesakes.

"Now there's something I haven't seen before." He added.

The kitsune froze with the sentence and tried to back away, that was until Sonic put his hand on his shoulder, at which point he seemed to relax a bit.

The doctor finished his quick overlook of him. "So you think he has a broken rib?"

"Yeah, he's having some difficulty breathing as well, it might have punctured a lung."

The doctor had the two come with him and they ran a quick X-ray on him, sure enough, he had broken two ribs on the top of his chest, one appeared to have left a small puncture wound in his lung.

"Well, it should just be able to fix itself. It doesn't appear to be serious, in fact, trying to surgically repair it would be more risk then it's worth."

"How long would that take?" Sonic asked.

"I'd give it about three weeks, until then, no physical stress or weight on it. He also needs to take it easy."

"Alright, see Tails, that wasn't that bad."

Tails didn't respond.

"Tails?"

The kitsune seemed to come back to his senses. "Y- Yeah, n- not that bad." He shakily responded.

Sonic was not convinced, he planned to ask him about it later. Sonic helped Tails to his feet, the doctor hadn't said anything about him not being able to walk.

The two left, Tails very eager to do so. As they started to walk back, Sonic asked his question.

"What were you thinking about back there?"

"I was just… It's nothing."

"Tails… You're not going to get any better if you keep trying to bottle everything up like that, if you really don't feel comfortable with it, then you don't have to."

"It was when I lost this," Miles started, pointing to his mechanical hand. "I tried to get anybody's help after I smashed it, pulverized every bone to dust."

Sonic winced at the comment. "That, must have hurt."

"It actually wasn't to bad, instantly cut off all feeling I had in it so it wasn't horrible, what did hurt was cutting it off."

"You had to cut off your own hand!?"

"Well, nobody was going to help me, I was viewed as a curse on the island so they didn't really care if my hand would never work again."

"Tails, I'm so sorry! That's horrible!"

"It's ok, you couldn't have done anything even if I knew you at the time."

They didn't say much else until they arrived back.

"Alright Tails, you know what the doctor said, you need to relax."

"Aren't we supposed to be finding the other Chaos Emeralds though?"

"I'll figure something out, just give me a bit."

Tails simply relaxed, there wasn't much he could do with his broken rib anyway, he put some ice on it to try and help lessen the pain a bit. Sonic meanwhile was trying to think through what they could do, as he zoned out. He found himself back in the ruined house he had seen when he first touched the Chaos Emerald.

Looking around once again, he recognized some of the things scattered around, they looked like some of Tails' stuff. That means he would have to be around if whatever had caused this still happened. The echidna from last time appeared with him.

"Alright, I need to know your name." Sonic instructed, before you give me any more of this prophesy stuff.

"My name is Tikal," She responded. "There isn't any time to waste, you must collect the rest of the Emeralds quickly."

"But what about Tails? I can't just leave him!"

"You have to, you can't waste any more time!"

"He's not going to like this you know, why are this Emeralds so important anyways?"

"They're the only thing that can stop the darkness!"

"What do you mean by that?"

Sonic felt the world lifting out from under him as he regained his senses.

_"What the heck!"_  He mentally yelled.  _"Just tell me lady, geez!"_

He wasn't quite sure how he would break this to Tails though, he was still going to follow through with what he had been told, better safe than sorry, he figured.

Eventually, he just decided to tell the kitsune what was up. He entered back into the main room, where he was relaxing.

"Hey Sonic!" He added, "We all set to head back out again?"

"Actually Tails, I don't think I can take you on this one…"

Tails looked at him with pure betrayal on his face, "But, I thought we were friends…"

"I just, need to do this one alone, and it doesn't look like you're in any condition to really be helpful anyways, the doctor said to get some rest."

The kitsune sunk back into the couch. "I just want to come with." He pouted.

"I know you do, but when I get back, I promise you'll get to go on the next one with me."

Some of his disappointment seemed to dissolve as he heard this statement. "Alright, well, could you at least leave some credits here for me? I need another eyepatch."

"Yeah, sorry for, you know."

"It's alright, besides, we probably would have had to break it anyways."

They exchanged a soft chuckle at this before Sonic spoke again. "Alright, I'll leave some here for you, just don't hurt yourself any more when you go to get parts for it alright."

"Can do."

Sonic started to pack his stuff, including the Emerald Radar, his sleeping equipment, and a few other items. He left Tails his small amount of credits, hopefully enough to cover any purchases he would need while he was gone, along with enough to get parts.

"You're welcome to use my bed, along with any tools you find in the garage, no sense in making you sleep on the floor after all."

"Got it, I'll see you when you get back!"

"Same goes for you Tails."

Tails gave him a thumbs up as Sonic left, turning on the Emerald Radar, he set off toward the nearest source.

**Alright, that's it for now! Leave a review so I know how I'm doing, and follow so you can be notified for when I update. Until next time!**


	8. Research and Development

**Alright everyone, I'm back from my vacation so that means I'm back to writing! Hopefully updates should be at the same rate as before! I think you know what's up by now so let's not waste any time!**

**Neck Break: Thanks!**

**Fortune Spirit: No problem! We all get distracted, I'm just happy you're enjoying it!**

**Alright, that's everyone for now, let's get started!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Research and Development** _

Sonic continued chasing after where the signal was, he still didn't feel happy about leaving Tails behind, but he knew it was probably in the kit's best interests. He also could go full speed for the first time in a while, it felt amazing. Referencing the scanner again, he continued to speed past everything. Stopping himself just outside the perimeter of the source, he got a solid look at his surroundings, now that they weren't a blur around him. He appeared to be in a small town of some sort, the scanner began to glitch out due to the interference in the area, it had to be close by. He started to pace around the area, he didn't have a clue as to where the Emerald would actually be, but from what he could gather, it seemed like he was right on top of it. He started to ask around to see if anybody knew where it could be at. Nobody returned responses that would be helpful.

Aside from one that is, he had been greeted by a pink hedgehog, she wore square framed glasses, along with a dark red and orange dress. Her hair looked somewhat unkempt and was pulled back behind her head.

"Hey, have you heard anything about a Chaos Emerald?" Sonic asked as the door opened, "It's about this-"

Before he could continue, he had been pulled inside and the door was shut behind him.

"What do you know about them?" The girl asked.

"Do you have one?"

"Ha! I wish, that would make everything so much easier."

A third voice was heard from within the home. "Who's at the door?" It asked.

"Somebody who apparently knows something about the Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic heard footsteps approaching until, finally, the figure revealed herself.

She was a white skinned bat, wearing a light green outfit, a small hood was pulled over her head, a pair of black wings extended out of her back. The outfit was adorned with small gem stones, her brown heeled boots echoed against the floor.

"Oh," She began. "Well, if there's anybody that would know something about them, it's you."

Sonic recognized the figure instantly. "Specter?"

"Call me Rouge, I left that behind me."

"You stopped treasure hunting? Why?"

"Just got boring, I'm debating on doing some work with G.U.N. but first, I'm helping her out." She replied, pointing to the pink hedgehog also present.

"Oh, sorry. My name's Amy, I guess you could say I've done some work in this field."

"What do you mean?"

"I've done some studies on Chaos Energy, well, at least the residual in the air, the actual Emeralds are hard to find."

"You mean one of these?"

Sonic removed the green Emerald from the scanner, Amy's eyes visibly widened at its appearance.

"You actually have one! This changes everything, I can do better research! We could find the others!"

"Excited much Rose?" Rouge questioned, seemingly amused by her reaction.

"How did you find this?" Amy asked.

"Tracked it, gotten three of them."

"I knew it was possible, how'd you build it?"

"A friend of mine did it, he's pretty good with technology."

"You'll have to give him my thanks, that's incredible, do you mind if I see it?"

"Not at all, seems like you'd know more about this then I would."

Sonic presented her the device, she looked over it, marveling at every little detail.

"Well, I think you've helped me immensely," Amy began. "I thought there would be one around here somewhere, looks like we're right on top of it."

"See, I'm confused by that, I can't find it anywhere."

"Why are you trying to collect them?"

"Was told to by some spirit lady, something about a darkness of sorts."

"Seems like a solid reason to be concerned, tell you what, if you let me study the ones you have and the ones you find, I could help you out."

"I guess I could use all the help I can get, we'll discuss it more after we find this one."

"Deal, Rouge, you in on this?"

"Nah, treasure hunting isn't really my thing anymore. You seem very excited about all of this, I'll still help you guys finish this one though."

"Thanks," Amy replied. "Now, apparently the Emerald is around here somewhere, I've heard rumors of an Echidna Temple that used to be here, it was a long time ago but we could try and locate it, maybe that's where it used to be."

"Seems like a solid plan, we got anywhere to start?"

"Well, using your scanner, and readings of Chaos Energy in the area, I'd say it should be just East of here."

"Cool, we'll start with that."

The trio of them set out toward the east, Amy still giddy with excitement. They wandered into the trees, no specific direction in mind. Eventually Rouge broke the silence.

"So, Sonic, what have you been up to all this time?"

"Just what I've been doing before, treasure hunting, being free to go do whatever I want."

"I was never really a fan of that whole thing, structure is what makes everything run."

"That why you're joining with G.U.N.?"

"Yeah, plus, it gives me an opportunity to help the little guys, you know…"

"I guess, I don't know, it's not really my thing. Doesn't mean I'm not happy for you though."

"Figured you'd still be out doing something like this, it always suited you."

"Just living the dream, doing something I love."

Amy interrupted their conversation, "Hey, your scanner says it's a bit further north, we need to head further that way."

"Take it only as an estimate at this point, it tends to get a little strange as it gets close to the Emeralds."

"Got you, I'm still amazed by this, it's still rather good at keeping a lock on it despite the constant change Chaos Energy undergoes."

"Yeah, it's crazy, I'll have to introduce you two some time, maybe you could help each other out!"

"Well, I'd certainly like to meet him."

Eventually, the three of them set eyes upon a small structure protruding from the ground, it was mostly destroyed above ground, nothing except remnants of stone columns and faded carvings remained. A small tunnel lead into the side of a nearby hill, it was dark inside, the torches having been extinguished long ago.

"Well, I'm going to guess this is where we're supposed to be, certainly looks like the other temple I found one in." Sonic commented.

"Apparently, this is an Echidna structure dating back thousands of years," Amy explained. "The Echidna were known for their close connection to Chaos Energy, able to tap into the vast power to perform incredible feats."

"Is that why they seem to like these kind of places?"

"Yes and no, the Echidnas moved them here in an attempt to ensure none of their power could fall into the wrong hands. Chaos Energy, while powerful, doesn't really have a preference on how it's used."

"Makes sense, I'm not sure a rock can have an opinion on how it's used."

"Actually, the legends say that each Emerald holds the essence of a God, an almost trial version of their powers if you will. So depending on if you believe it or not, you could argue the stones have a sentience of sort."

Sonic nodded before continuing to investigate the walls of the tunnel they had found themselves in, while the carving's sharp edges had corroded away with age, the general picture was mostly intact in some places.

"Well, my gut tells me this isn't going to be as easy as we hope."

"You've got that right," Rouge replied, "I can't remember last time one of my hunts went smoothly."

"Yep, let's get looking." The hedgehog produced a flashlight from his bag, the other two turned on the ones they had been carrying and they set off into the tunnel.

They continued to check out any of the markings across the walls, as they descended further into the structure, the carving's condition improved and became more ornate in their appearance. Amy carefully took in each one as they went, a massive smile on her face.

"This is incredible, there's so much written here, and it's in excellent condition!"

Rouge smiled as well, "I'd forgotten how much fun this could be sometimes."

Sonic was enjoying himself, the tunnels continued on for a while before opening into a living space of some sort, it had been long abandoned, multiple different paths branched off of it in different directions.

"We should split up," Rouge suggested. "We'd find it faster that way."

"Agreed," Sonic replied. "Meet back here in about fifteen minutes, if you find the Emerald or a dead end, just head back."

They nodded and set of down different tunnels, Sonic chose one that extended downward, thinking it would lead him to the Emerald faster.

The short stairwell ended and Sonic found himself in additional hallways, with even more branches, he took the path on his left, and shortly found himself in a small living quarters, turning back, he tried another and came across a well of some sort.

He headed back and tried the final one, it lead him to a storage room of sorts, looking through the scrolls lining the walls, he quickly found they were written in a language he couldn't begin to read, a few of the scrolls, ordained with a red colored tip on their containers. Caught his eye, once again, they weren't understandable, so he put a few in the bag before starting back toward the meeting spot, maybe Amy could try and read them.

He found his way back to the central chamber and waited for the other two to return, Amy returned before Rouge, she hadn't found anything in her tunnel, and Rogue, upon returning, had the same response.

"Well, I guess that leaves one to go then." Amy began, "Let's give it a look."

The others agreed and they set off down the last remaining hall. Eventually, they came across a room that the floor was entirely covered in short pikes, what looked to be remains of a short bridge sat on either side. A doorway was visible on the other side.

"Well, I don't know about you two," Rouge stated. "But I can just fly across."

Sonic thought about it before coming up with an idea. "I need you guys to stand back, I'm going to jump it."

Rouge, knowing about Sonic's speed, quickly silenced Amy's protests and stepped back. Sonic prepped himself and charged forward, jumping as late as he could on the platform, he landed on the other side, stumbling for a bit after due to the speed he had been traveling at.

Rouge flew over after him, the two then turned back to Amy.

"We'll try and see if there's any way to get you across." Rouge spoke.

Amy nodded at their reply as the two started searching for anything of potential usefulness on their side of the gap, the other half of the temple still full of unknown surprises.

**Alright guys, that's it for now, be sure to leave a review telling me how I'm doing, and follow to be notified whenever I update, I should be getting chapters for my other stories out very soon! Until next time!**


	9. Secrets of the Ruins

**Hello everyone! I'm back, before we get started, I've got my reviews from last time!**

**NeckBreak: Thanks!**

**RandomGuyonthestreet13: Thanks for leaving a review! It means a lot!**

**Fortune Spirit: It has been abandoned and eroding for decades, its bound to be somewhat eerie.**

**DaddlerTheDalek: Thank you for giving this story a shot! I'm glad you like it!**

**Alright, that's all for now, let's get started!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Secrets of the Ruins** _

The remaining two members of the party continued onward, they were looking for anything they could possibly use or extend to reach Amy and bring her over. Sonic and Rouge split up, allowing them to cover ground faster. If they managed to find the Emerald, it would be a nice bonus. Sonic continued to check out the murals written on the walls, they seemed to depict the Chaos Emeralds in lots of the artwork, apparently the Echidnas seemed to heavily incorporate them into their culture.

_"Well, Amy sure knows what she's talking about…"_  He thought to himself.  _"They really like these Emeralds."_

The search proved mostly uneventful, aside from discovering additional living quarters, long since abandoned. Multiple of the rooms he came across were empty, and he had no idea what exactly they would have contained.

One room in particular caught his eye, it seemed much more decorated that any of the other rooms he had come across. While it was still rather barren, he felt the room was more centralized then any of the others he had come across. It had three walkways to other rooms branching off from the walls. As he continued down one of the hallways, he ran back across Rouge.

"Anything?" He asked her.

"Not really, mostly more empty space."

"Same, this hall leads to a central hub of some sort. I've got nothing to get Amy over here though, they did a pretty good job of clearing out the place."

"Seriously, there's nothing here!"

"Well, we could head back to Amy and let her know what's going on."

"I'll give it a better look around here."

"Well I'll join you. We'd just have to tell her there's nothing we can do here. There's at least a chance we'll find something."

"Cool, there's still a few rooms left."

They went and investigated the remaining rooms, not much instantly stood out, aside from their poor condition in comparison to the rest. They looked like they were used more often.

"This place is quite a bit larger than I expected." Rouge commented.

"Seriously, I didn't think it would be this big judging by the entrance. This is huge!"

His voice echoed down the empty corridors.

"We might as well want to head back, there's not anything back here to help, not even the Chaos Emerald." Rouge suggested.

"Yeah, that concerns me, you'd think we would have come across it by now."

"There were plenty of markings with it in them, maybe somebody beat us to it?"

"Seems unlikely, something here would be disturbed, I assume we're the first ones here in decades. Well, let's start headed back, tell Amy we've got nothing."

Rouge nodded in agreement as the started the trek back, eventually they arrived to the destroyed bridge, both crossing it in their respective manners.

"You guys find anything?" Amy asked, curious about the venture.

"I found a room with a bunch of scrolls, couldn't read them though." Sonic replied.

"What about the Chaos Emerald?"

"That's the interesting part, it's not here."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Someone might have beat us to the punch on this one. Unless it's hidden very well."

"Did you two even come across anything that might have contained an Emerald?"

"Nope, it's completely barren back there."

Amy was naturally puzzled by the new development. "Well, that's odd, there should be a pedestal somewhere with the Emerald, let's head back and I'll take a look at those scrolls you have, while we work on that, we could figure out what happened to the Emerald."

The others nodded in agreement and they returned to Amy's house, which doubled as a research lab. Amy sprawled out the couple scrolls Sonic had gathered and began to attempt to translate them, she seemed to know what she was doing as within an hour or two, she had deciphered them.

"Alright, so, the scrolls mention the Chaos Emerald in them, however, they don't give anything on its whereabouts, the red tipped one didn't even mention it at all, it's a war record. Apparently the Echidnas had a sort of civil war, that helps explain why they have temples and strongholds spread everywhere. They're not situated in one specific area."

"What was the mention of the Emerald?" Rogue asked, "Anything on why it might be missing?"

"Not particularly, Sonic, you said there were more of these right?"

"Yeah, do you think they could have anything to do with it?"

"It's likely, we should head back and get more, maybe we could figure out what happened to it."

Considering it was their only lead, the others agreed and they trekked back, this time gathering supplies to allow Amy to cross the gap with them. Arriving, they set up a small bridge across the gap and investigated the scroll room for any possible clues. Amy started to scan through any records they could get their hands on, most of the time, they were like the other ones that Sonic had brought back with him. They only mentioned the Emerald in passing.

"There's just got to be something we missed." Amy mused, "Could you guys do another circle of the area, just to make sure we've checked everywhere?"

"Sure," Sonic replied before speeding off. He checked through all the rooms in the back half of the temple, nothing jumped out at him anymore than it had before, everything still seemed like a dead end, he paused in the rear hub to investigate the murals there again, the Emerald was centralized in the image, with plenty of other carvings around it.

_"It's on a pedestal in the carving, but I can't find one anywhere! Am I blind!?"_  He mentally asked himself. _"It's not like somebody's made off with an entire part of the temple!"_

He started pacing around before resigning to himself before heading back to the scroll room. Rouge returned a few minutes after him.

"Nothing," She reported. "If I didn't know better, I'd say we're looking in the wrong spot."

"Actually," Amy began. "I've got a few parts of these scrolls figured out, one thing that confuses me though is that it mentions a vault of some kind."

"Like, vault as in locked compartment?" Sonic questioned.

"Seems like it, you two find anything that could be it?"

"I ran into a hub like area with a large carving, do you think that could be it?"

"Maybe, I'll need more evidence on it. I'll keep reading these."

Sonic and Rouge, not having anything better to do, simply resigned to wait.

"Hold on," Amy began after a few hours had passed. "There's another mention of it here!"

She threw the scroll down onto the stone table and pointed to an area of text. Sonic was still as confused as ever. "What's it say?"

"There's mention of a switch of some kind, a hidden one."

Sonic, having a hunch as to where it might be, returned to the rear hub where he started checking all the protrusions in the wall. Amy and Rouge came in behind him. Just as they did, he decided to press on the Emerald carving in the wall, it indented slightly into the wall, a segment of the wall slowly began to side to the left before, with a sharp grinding noise, it slowed to a halt.

"Knew it!" Sonic added, "Secret passage!"

"That's amazing!" Amy added, she tried to look through the small gap that had formed. "I think it's stuck, this thing hasn't been used or repaired in years."

The three tried to push it open, only succeeding in opening it slightly more, before Amy had an idea.

"Wait, stand back."

Sonic and Rouge, now curious, did as they were ordered. Amy produced a large pink and yellow hammer, seemingly out of thin air and took a swing at the doorway. It seemed to budge at the impact, the strikes continued, eventually rather than the door moving as it had, it started to have large pieces broken off as it crumbled under the constant attack. Eventually with one final swing, it finally shattered.

"There we go!" She exclaimed.

"Where the heck did you get that!?" Sonic asked motioning to the hammer.

"Honestly, I've always been able to call it. I don't know why, I can just think about it and reach back, when I pull my hand back forward, it's just there."

"That's, pretty cool actually." Sonic replied, "Well that's one way to get it open."

After stowing the hammer, the three of them entered down the originally concealed hall and entered into a large chamber with a pedestal placed at it's center, a bright orange gemstone sat atop it. Amy eagerly stepped up to it and removed it from its holding.

"It's beautiful…" She mused. "I never thought I'd get to find one of these."

"They're a sight to behold that's for sure. That's four down."

Rouge smiled at the two of their reactions, she was just as impressed herself, this seemed to be the best way to end off her time hunting. The three returned to Amy's home to better investigate the Emerald itself.

"Sonic, you said you needed this?" Amy asked, gesturing to the stone now sitting on the table.

"Kind of, I thought you were wanting to come with?"

"For sure! That was exciting! Rouge, you sure you don't want to come?"

"Not really, that's probably a good way to end off. I wish you the best of luck."

Amy somewhat sadly nodded, the two had been working together for a while now so it felt like she was losing a friend of sorts. "Same goes for you." She replied, the two embraced one another before Rouge stepped out.

After a while, Amy broke the silence. "So, what are we going to do about my stuff?"

"We can come back and get it later, I've got a biplane that we could carry most of it in."

"Sounds like a plan, how are we going to get to your house in the first place?"

"We can run, I'll carry you so you can keep up."

Amy was somewhat confused by his comment, but decided to go along with it.

The two stepped outside, Sonic picked up Amy, bridal style and took off in the direction he had arrived from. Amy seemed to enjoy the speed until, after a few minutes, they began to decelerate and arrived at his home.

They first walked into the garage, he returned the tracker and the newly acquired Emerald to the desk, Amy seemed mesmerized by the boldness of the colors across each of their faces.

"Am I dreaming? I never thought I would see one of these, much less four!"

"Hopefully, you'll get to see more than just those, there's still another three to find."

Amy nodded at the statement before the two of them stepped inside, another member added to their hunting party.

**Alright, that's it for now! The next chapter should be out faster than this one was so you shouldn't have to wait quite as long. Anyways, until next time!**


	10. Three's a Crowd

**Hello guys, I'm back with a update for you guys! Let's get started!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Three's a Crowd** _

As soon as Sonic and Amy stepped into the living room, Tails, who was resting on the couch at the time, jumped behind it trying to hide from the newcomer among them.

"Tails…" Sonic started. "If you're trying to hide, you've got to be faster than that! Why don't you come out and meet her?"

The kitsune's head slowly peeked out, Sonic noted the newly constructed eyepatch across his face as the fox slowly shook his head. Amy tried to coax him out of his spot.

"Hey bud, it's ok to come out, I just want to meet you."

Sonic pulled Amy aside and started to explain what was happening.

"His name's Miles, I call him Tails, he's scared because all his life he's been beaten up and abused by everyone for his… Abnormality."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I call him Tails for a reason."

"No way."

"See it to believe it, anyways, just say you won't hurt him, be gentle, and especially, don't touch his tails."

"Got it, how old is he?"

"I think around eleven, I haven't actually asked." Sonic deadpanned.

"Well, I've got to say, by the quality of the tracker you had, I thought he would be much older."

"He's excellent with technology, heck, he made himself a prosthetic hand and eye."

"Geez, alright, let's give this a shot."

The two returned, Tails, whom of which had risen from his hiding spot slightly, crouched back behind it the second they returned.

"Tails, I'm not going to hurt you. I promise, you can trust me."

The kit slowly stuck his head out from the side of the couch.

"That's it, come on…"

Slowly he stepped out, and walked toward the two of them, cautiously testing the waters for himself.

"See Tails," Sonic began. "Not everyone is out to get you."

"I g- guess you're right…" Tails replied, slowly stepping up to Amy. "M- My name's Miles, but, just call me Tails."

"I know that already." She replied, grinning as she did so. "My name's Amy, I hear you're pretty good with machines."

The kit blushed at the compliment, "Thanks. What do you do?" He asked, fidgeting with the tip of one of his tails.

"I do research on Chaos Energy, I think you could help me out a bit."

"How's that?"

"There's been something I've been wanting to try for a while now, but I've never been able to build something to actually test it, do you mind helping me out?"

"N- Not at all, I've got some spare parts in the garage."

"Lead the way."

The three of them entered the garage, Sonic started the conversation. "Alright, well considering I'm probably not going to be the biggest help, I'll be in the living room."

"Could you stay in here?" Tails timidly asked.

"Tails, she won't hurt you, I'll make sure of that."

"Al- Alright, I'll trust you…"

"Thanks bud, I promise, you'll learn to like her."

Tails shakily smiled at him as he left, leaving Tails and Amy to themselves.

"So Tails, I just want to ask, how old are you?"

"I think around twelve."

"Do you not know?"

"I'm n- not really sure, my parents left me to live on my own when I was really young because I was a worthless freak, I don't even know when my birthday is."

"I'm sorry to hear that, I think your tails are pretty neat."

"Well you and Sonic are the first, everyone else just seems to hate them."

"They make you different."

"Thanks." Tails replied.

"Don't mention it, so anyways, could you try and help me?"

"Yeah, what do you have in mind?"

Amy quickly explained over her idea, Tails listened with great interest.

"Do you think that'll work?" He asked, questioning the idea he had been presented with.

"I assume so, the research I have seems to suggest it. The only way to find out is to give it a shot!"

Tails couldn't argue with that and they set off to work, Amy providing suggestions for exactly what everything needed to do.

**-X-**

Sonic was excited, they now had over half of the Emeralds collected, plus, hopefully everything would get easier from here on out. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.

" _Wait a second, now did Tails get the parts to help Amy? I didn't leave him that much…"_

He peaked his head back into the workshop, the two seemed to be getting along better now, and were focused on their work.

"Tails? Can I talk to you for a second?"

The kitsune nodded and stepped out, "What is it?

"Where'd you get all those parts?"

"You left me with some credits, remember?"

"Yeah, but not that much!"

The kit started to nervously fidget with one of his tails. The other moved down slightly in fear.

"Just tell me, I just want to know."

"I- I might have, found some more credits while you guys were gone…"

"Did you steal them?"

"I couldn't help myself! They were just right there!"

"Tails, we've been over this. You've got to stop stealing."

"It's just instinct! I can't help it! You try to stop doing something you have to do to live! How do you think I've kept myself alive all this time!?"

"Alright, but you've got to stop. One of these days you're going to get caught."

"I'll try, but I've done it for so long, it- it could be a while."

"You'll get better, just try for me alright."

He nodded.

"What are you guys working on?" Sonic questioned.

"I'm not really sure, Amy is just telling me what she needs, a way to draw Chaos Energy out of the Emeralds."

"Well, we know they work as a power source, maybe it's being used to power something."

The kit shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Well after you guys are done, we're going to try and find the next Emerald, I'll try and pin point its location."

"Nice, once you've got it we'll head out."

"Sounds good, I'll see what's close."

Tails returned back into the workshop, leaving him to consult the scanner for information, there still appeared to be five signal sources left to acquire, including the Emerald they had found on the floating island. Consulting a map to try and figure out the surrounding area and where each would be located.

One appeared to be in a city of sorts, one had nothing of note around it, two appeared near one another, including the one they had tried to get earlier, seemed they'd have to head back there at some point, they also had one in a area that looked somewhat civilized. He'd liked the challenge of the last one, so the one with no surroundings intrigued him.

He figured he had time until the other two were done, so he just decided to get some well deserved rest.

**-X-**

Tails and Amy busied themselves in the workshop, the kit had significantly warmed up to her after Sonic's reassurance, he was still a bit nervous about having his trust betrayed, as it had multiple times before. But it seemed less and less likely as time passed.

"Alright," he said. "That should be everything to extract energy out of it, what else did you need?"

"So, this could sound a bit strange, but, Chaos energy can be solidified."

"Isn't it an energy though? That shouldn't be possible…"

"Believe me, that's not even half of it. It behaves unlike anything else."

"So what would it need to solidify properly? I need a basic guideline to build with."

"Mostly, just a confined space, using the energy we should be able to compact it into a small enough space that it would solidify."

"So like a, box made out of metal plates that can shrink to press it together?"

"Exactly!"

"I can do that, might need a couple little things here and there but otherwise I should just be able."

"Awesome, about how long do you think it'll take?"

"A couple hours? Not really sure, I haven't messed around with Chaos Energy too much, just enough to know how to use the energy it produces." He explained.

"I'll help you out, it should be somewhat simple. Not going to get into complex parts of it for a bit."

"That makes it lots easier, I'll get started."

Amy instructed him as he build, giving a idea of what everything should be able to do. Sonic joined them every once in a while, but otherwise it was just the two of them. Eventually, their device began to take shape.

"Alright, is that all?" Tails asked.

"Hopefully, only one way to find out."

Tails understood what she meant, the green Emerald was inserted into the machine, causing it to jolt to life. After a few minutes had passed, the container started slowly compacting and eventually it was unable to continue any further due to resistance.

"Sounds like it worked." Amy commented, allowing the pistons to retract, they discovered a small green cube, it was somewhat darker in it's coloring than the Emerald.

"It worked!" Amy yelled, pulling Tails into a tight hug. "I thought there was no way!"

"What is it?" The kit asked, a massive grin across his face. He was enjoying the positive attention he had been getting recently, it was a unusual sensation, but it made him feel warm and fuzzy inside.

"That, is solidified Chaos Energy, it doesn't seem to be at the same amount as the Emeralds themselves, but the fact that it's even possible allows for all sorts of things."

"Like what?"

"It can work as a temporary substitute for a Emerald, it'll let us do a bit more reckless things with them without risking a actual one."

He nodded in response, "That's sweet! You seem to know a lot about how Chaos Energy works, you'll have to teach me sometime!"

"Sure! You'd probably catch on pretty quick, judging by the quality of the machinery here."

The kit instinctively blushed at the compliment. Amy noticed the soft pink his face changed to. "You're just the cutest little thing," She added, reaching out to ruffle his bangs. He instinctively flinched back until he noticed the concerned look on Amy's face, he slowly relaxed and allowed her to lightly pat his head.

"There you go, I won't hurt you." She added.

"I know, it's just instinct, sorry if I scared you."

"I should have warned you, Sonic's told me how jumpy you are."

"I shouldn't be anymore, I know you guys aren't like everyone else I've met. I just can't help it."

"Well, it's alright. We should probably go check in with Sonic, let him know we're done."

Tails nodded in response and they headed back into the main living area, Sonic was waiting for them.

"You guys set? I've got the next Emerald located, so whenever you guys are ready, we can head out."

"I think we're set," Amy replied, Tails nodded in agreement.

"Awesome! So, it seems to be in the middle of a forest somewhere, we'll take the Tornado."

Tails seemed confused by the answer, "Doesn't it only have two seats though?"

"I'm aware, that's why you're flying it."

"Me? I don't even have any idea how!"

"That's why I'll teach you, you'll do great!"

"If you say so, that still doesn't really solve how we're going to get everyone on it though."

"I've got an idea, I'll stand on the wing, hopefully I can stay attached to it."

Amy seemed to have concerns about Sonic's plan, but chose to keep them to herself.

"Well," Sonic started. "Let's get moving, the Emerald isn't going to collect itself!"

They followed him out front, prepped for the next adventure.

**Alright guys, that's all for now! Leave a review so I know what your thoughts are and follow to be notified when I update! Until next time!**


	11. Phantom Visions

**Seems like I'm finally back into the swing of things! Sorry about the long wait on chapters for all my stories for a while, I just had a lot going on and didn't have a ton of time to write. You guys know the drill so let's get going!**

**(FFN Reviews)**

**TheGameNguyener: There's still some tension with them, Tails and Amy are getting along well though, glad you enjoyed it!**

**Piggon: Their personalities are pretty different and played off one another well. Tails' timid nature was pushed off temporarily by Amy as well!**

**NeckBreak: Thanks!**

**AStoryTellerBook: I got the inspiration from a few different places, but you're free to try and decide where!**

**(AO3 Comments)**

**Luna: Thank you for taking the time to review! I try to do research on the story and plan out the plot beforehand, even writing out some scenes I want to include far in advance! Tails especially got a lot of research on possible symptoms he could have in this story, I feel he would rather enjoy the hug!**

**Alright, that's all for now, let's get started!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Phantom Visions** _

"I'm still not so sure about this, what if I crash us?" Tails asked, still bewildered about his new role as pilot. He was still nervous about the job he was given, he hadn't flown a plane before, and was afraid of messing everything up, like he often seemed to do.

"You won't, I'll be right there helping, you'll do fine!" Sonic tried to reason.

The three of them stepped out into the garage, and jumped into the plane, Sonic was sitting on the wing, while Amy and Tails took the two available seats.

"So, how does this work?" The kit asked.

"Turn it on."

The kitsune reached out and shakily turned the ignition and the plane flared to life, it slowly began to move forward.

"How do I stop!?" Tails exclaimed, panicking at the sudden movement.

"Brakes are down below." Sonic added, pointing into the cockpit.

Tails activated it and slowly it came to a stop.

"Well don't use them now, we've got to get this thing moving after all!"

Tails' expression dropped.

"Hey," Sonic replied. "You're alright, everyone does it."

This seemed to cheer the kitsune up a bit, he released on the brake allowing it to slowly move forward.

"Good, now, once we get enough speed, you're going to pull back on those sticks, ok?"

"How do I know when it's fast enough?"

"I'll tell you, just focus on keeping us straight."

Tails did as he was instructed, and the plane began to build speed on Sonic's makeshift runway.

"Now, slowly pull up."

The three started to slowly rise into the air, Tails smiled at his current success.

"You've got it!" Sonic added once they'd cleared the tops of the trees, "Amy, which way are we headed?"

"West, at least, that's what it's saying." Amy shook the tracker in her hand for emphasis.

"Alright, Tails, you're going to turn us around, just slowly turn it right."

The plane instantly turned right, much more sharply than Sonic had anticipated, he slid across the surface of the wing before grabbing an edge of the cockpit.

"Little more warning next time bud." Sonic spoke, trying to catch his breath from the adrenaline rush.

"Sorry! It's a lot more responsive then I though, I figured I'd have to turn it a lot." Tails explained.

"You're fine, you're doing great for your first time. Amy, how close are we to being lined up?"

"Tails overshot a bit, just a smidge left!"

"Got it, you hear that Tails?"

"Bit to the left," He repeated, and the plane turned, slowly this time, until Amy told them they had lined up.

"Nice job bud! If I didn't know better, I'd say you've got some pilot in you!"

"Maybe one of my parents were one, I only wish they could see me now…"

"Bet they'd be proud."

"Proud might not be the right word to describe it, not disappointed might be better…"

"Hey, let's get off this topic, it's obviously a sore spot for you. Amy!" Her ears perked up at the same time Tails' flattened against his head, partially at having negative memories dug up and because the wind hurt his sensitive hearing. "What made you get into Chaos Research?"

"Honestly, it seemed kind of fun, plus, my friends used to say that I was the kind of person to not give up on something. I wouldn't take no for an answer."

"What's the fun part about it?"

"Experimenting with things we really have only begun to understand, there's so much to Chaos Energy that we've barely scratched the surface! Any time a breakthrough could be made that revolutionizes all current research!"

"Sounds like fun, being at the forefront of discovery like that, not having everything just laid out in front of you. I can get behind that."

"I guess that fits all of us then."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, we've all created our own futures in a way, imagine if we had made any other choices then we have now, everything would be so much different." Amy explained.

"So that's why I keep feeling odd." Sonic replied, "Sometimes I feel like I'm just missing something, but since meeting you and Tails, it's just stopped coming up. Maybe I was just subconsciously lonely, or we were meant to meet one another."

"Like fate?"

"Not like that, like, soulmates, but not like lovers or anything."

"I've had the same sensation, it's super creepy, like sometimes, I can kind of already know what you're thinking, even though we just met!" Amy exclaimed.

"Same here, Tails, you have that feeling as well?"

The kit looked up at him, "A bit, I'm honestly just happy to be along for the ride."

"I guess that counts, well, if it makes you feel any better, we're happy to have you here."

The kit smiled, "Thanks, honestly, you guys are the best."

"It's no proble-"

"No, really, you don't need to be humble." Tails interrupted, wiping some stray tears from his eyes. "You two have shown me more friendship then I ever knew existed in the world, I can't remember the last time I was this happy. So, I can't thank you enough for being my friends."

"You're welcome Tails," Sonic replied. "Amy, how close are we?"

"A couple miles out, it's going to be somewhere around here."

"Thanks! Alright Tails, start bringing us down, there's a decently sized clearing over there, just try to avoid the trees."

"I'll try."

"That's all I needed to hear, you've got this!"

The landing, aside from a bit of bumpiness when they finally touched down, went smoothly. The three hopped out of the plane and Sonic and Amy grabbed their bags.

"Aright, we're about a mile out." Amy added, "We just need to walk straight West."

"Awesome," Sonic replied. "Maybe we'll find something on our way."

The trio set out into the trees, heading toward where Amy directed them. The woods were quiet aside from the occasional breeze or animal. They tried to stay as a group as they continued.

"How much further is this- ughhhh..." Tails moaned, throwing his hands to his forehead.

"You alright bud?"

"Y-Yeah... just had a splitting head-" His reply was cut off as his brain kicked into overdrive, shutting out the world and focusing on a new memory in his head.

**-X-**

He was back in a cave he didn't recognize, amidst other machinery and things he never remembered building or having. A small orange plated dog like robot ran up to him.

"Hey T! How are you doing!?" He exclaimed.

The robot simply tried to lick his face, it couldn't speak after all.

"I take that as a 'Good' then!" The kitsune replied, rubbing the robots head.

" _T-Pup, Miles thought at the memory. Why don't I remember T-Pup? This has got to be old considering I haven't lost a hand yet."_

The robot in question cocked it head to the side while looking up at him.

"What am I working on?" He picked up a blueprint that was centralized on his desk, it was a drawing of a small personal submarine. "I call it the Sea Fox! It'll finally let us get off this island! Think about it, there won't be anybody after us all the time, just you, me and newfound freedom!"

The robot canine barked in response. It seemed to like the idea.

"Thanks T, you're a great friend."

Miles couldn't help but feel a bit saddened at the memory.  _"Was I really that desperate?"_  He could feel the memory fading away as he returned to his senses.

**-X-**

"Should we take him back?"

"And make him think we abandoned him? Do you have any idea what that could do?"

"I'm just saying, we can't leave him here."

Tails' eyes slowly fluttered back open, Amy and Sonic were both instantly by his side.

"Tails, you good?" Amy asked.

"Yeah... I think I had another memory."

"What was it this time?" Sonic asked, Amy just looked confused, she would have to ask about it later.

"It was me from a few years ago, at least I think, before I lost my hand. Anyways, we were in some cave I didn't recognize but I clearly lived there, there was this friendly robot named T-Pup, I think he was mine."

"Sounds odd, did you not remember any of that before?"

"No... Even now, it's still just the one minute or so, nothing before, after, or even what things in it were."

"Can you stand up?"

"What do you-" Tails started to ask before he realized he was lying on the grass instead of standing up like he was before. He tested his legs and shakily stood back up. "How long was I out?"

"About ten minutes," Sonic commented. "One second you were just fine and then the next you fell face first into the dirt, are you sure you don't want a drink or something like that?"

"I'll be alright, I feel fine now..."

Sonic shot Amy a glance from the side of his view, "Alright, well, just be careful."

"Can do," Tails replied. The three of them continued their way, Tails rolled over the new memory in his mind. When had he forgotten T-Pup? Although he couldn't remember the exact things he had done with the robot, he knew he had seen him as a friend for a long time.

Meanwhile, Amy had her own questions. "What was that? He said another memory, has this happened before?"

"It wasn't quite as extreme, we think he has some repressed memories of some kind, they've come back to him suddenly like that one. But he never remembers where they're from or what triggered them." Sonic explained.

"That's odd, maybe there's something we can do to help."

"I think that's something he needs to deal with on his own, I've just stayed out of it."

"You might be right, but it's not going to stop me from trying!"

"We've got an Emerald to find first, and considering this, we might be there."

Amy followed his sight and saw between the trees an ancient stone structure, this one appeared rather tall, rather than the tunnels they traversed in the last one.

"Look at the size of that thing," Tails gawked.

"Yeah, it's crazy how beautiful these can be sometimes." Sonic commented.

"They had a way of doing that, conveying their stories and their culture through architecture." Amy added.

"Well, I'm willing to bet this is it, how do we want to go about this?"

"Let's all head in and then split up once we're inside, hopefully one of us can track it down."

"Sounds good to me, you in Tails?"

"Heck yes!"

"Well, let's get going!" Sonic exclaimed, leading the two of them into the dark interior of the temple.

**Alright guys, that's all for today! Leave a review with your thoughts and follow to receive notifications whenever I update! Until next time!**


	12. Hunt It Down

**Hello! I'm here again with another update!**

**(FFN Reiviews)**

**DaddlerTheDalek: Amy has been very fun to write! Her personality is just so contagious, and I find myself smiling while writing it!**

**Alright, that's it for now, let's get going!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Hunt it Down** _

To say the temple was large, would be an understatement. Its sheer size impressed the group, the internal architecture looked much different than the other temples they had come across, containing much more jagged lines and a much more timeless look to the whole place, everything looked to be in near pristine condition.

"How do we want to handle this?" Tails asked, bewildered by the amount of area they would have to cover.

"Simple," Sonic replied. "Split up, there's way too much ground for us to cover as a group."

"What's the plan for when we actually find the Emerald?" Amy asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Sonic answered. The other two were not amused.

"How about we head back here every hour and a half, that way we can try and keep track of one another and don't get too lost." She suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me, let's go!"

Sonic was off before either of the other two could blink, they rolled their eyes before setting off in their own directions.

**-X-**

Sonic breezed through the empty corridors, their semi straight hallways creating a perfect track to run on. There wasn't much, aside from the occasional big room or pillar it looked positively empty.

" _This is the life!"_ He thought to himself.  _"Nothing to hold me back!"_

Everything he had passed so far had been mostly uneventful. He took random turns through the corridors and eventually came across a room that looked interesting. He stopped himself and scanned the entire room. It looked to be a living quarters of some sort, though there was currently nobody present. He started to rummage through what little there was left around, not finding much. Seems the structure was abandoned in a hurry, as there were still a decent amount of personal belongings lying around.

As he went through the leftovers he discovered some more scrolls, he gathered them together for Amy to try and decipher. He set back off on a run through the temple, see if he could locate anything else of interest.

Amy meanwhile, was having her own adventure. He was very confused by the nature of the temple's existence and it looked like nothing she'd ever seen or studied. Everything was new and she was having major difficulty deciphering anything written.

" _Dang it! Why is this so hard all of a sudden!?"_ She questioned herself, going through the work in her head again.

While she tried to read them, the symbols didn't make cohesive sentences, and there were some she had never seen before, but she blamed that on the runes fading away with time.

" _The Echidna had a single language that they use for everything, why is it suddenly so different?"_

The bits of sentence she could make out had no connection to one another, as if she was translating the ones she did know incorrectly. She considered it a possibility that another language did exist but, if so, she had never heard of it.

Abandoning the segment she had found, she picked out another on, checking if she could understand anything. After a while, she hit the same roadblocks as before.

As Amy continued onward, Tails continued upward, he had located a small hole in the ceiling and tried to recreate his flight. Checking to make sure his tails were rotating as fast as he could he jumped into the air, he hovered for a moment, but found himself unable to gain any height, no matter how much he tried to.

" _What am I doing wrong?"_ He asked himself.  _"I know I can do it…"_

He started going through any memories of his flight that he could access, trying to get it down to an exact science.

" _Alright Miles, just believe in yourself. You can do this!"_

He tried flying back up again, and this time he slowly rose until he could get his arms through the hole and pull himself up.

"Yes! Finally!" He exclaimed. "I did it!"

He continued on his own way, now having a whole new area to explore, he figured that the Emerald would logically be at the top, especially considering how essential they seemed to their culture. He was going to head all the way to the top and check there.

**-X-**

About an hour had passed and Sonic still had no luck finding anything. He had run into Amy once in that time and together, they found they had searched the entirety of the first layer. Neither had seen Tails since they set off. They had both agreed to head up a level to continue, and that put them back into the routine they had been in earlier, Sonic dashing through every room and hallway he could find, and Amy still being confused as to the inscriptions she was suddenly unable to read.

Tails meanwhile, was hurling himself out a window. He had gotten much better with his flight and was continuing his accent of the structure, now sitting multiple floors above Sonic and Amy, he landed and caught his breath from the short flight and he prepared to continue upward before he noticed the larger inscriptions on the walls, they were somewhat important in their appearance, even though he had no way of identifying what they said.

He moved inward on the floor he was on and eventually found a small pillar in one of the rooms. Sitting on it was a circular red gemstone. He slowly walked up to it and gently picked it up in his hand. He smiled to himself, though he didn't really know why this one was spherical in shape rather than the diamond he was used to by now.  _"That's odd… I'm not complaining though!"_ He thought to himself, allowing his mind to wander. Slowly, another memory started to surface in his head. He was back on the island from his earlier memory, Myire Island, he remembered, he was being restrained by a set of two other Mobians, one another fox, and one a canine of some sort. Another two, a set of cats, were busy cornering T-Pup across from him, he pulled and thrashed against his restraints.

"Don't hurt him!" Tails yelled.

"Just be happy we're not after you yet!" One of the cats replied.

"Beat up on me if you have to! Just don't hurt T-Pup, he's my only family!"

"Machines can't think! It's only your family because you're a freak, and nobody else wants you!"

By now, they had successfully caught the small robot, and began to deliver strikes to it's externals, T-Pup whimpered in pain as components on his body started to break off.

"Stop! Please!" He pleaded, tears blurring his vision as they ran down his face and struck the dirt below.

Miles was punched across the face by the other fox restraining him, "Quiet you freak!"

Miles was forced to watch as his best friend, and only family was torn to shreds in front of him. He was able to stop crying and begging as he was released and for once, he felt truly and totally alone.

Tails shook the memory and tears out of his head, thrusting his emotions down inside him as he made toward the window he had entered from and stepped out onto a small ledge. Now confident in his flying skills, he decided to put them to the test. He took a deep breath and jumped off. Allowing himself to plummet and surrendering himself to the fall, he suddenly felt strangely at peace. He felt like he finally belonged somewhere, the sky felt like the home he had never had. Spinning his tails he caught himself and leveled out, before gently placing his feet on the dirt.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" He exclaimed, he had gotten back his ability to fly and he felt on top of the world. He entered back into the temple and took a seat by the entrance, he figured it'd be better to wait for Sonic and Amy to come back. Looking down at his hand, he admired the beauty of the crimson colored stone in his hand, admiring the reflection of his face in the glass like surface.

After about thirty more minutes had passed, Sonic and Amy both returned to the doorway.

"Hey! Look what I found!" Tails exclaimed, holding up the gemstone resting in his hand.

"Nice job Tails!" Amy replied, "Where was it at?"

"All the way up top, had it's own little shrine and everything!"

Sonic took the stone from him and looked it over. "This one's different, Amy, you know anything about this?"

Amy asked for it and looked it over, Tails had a nervous expression cross his face, maybe he hadn't found it after all.

"Well, it certainly looks different, is there still Chaos Energy coming from it?"

Tails produced his tracker and scanner it, "Looks like it…"

"Maybe it formed differently than the others?" Amy questioned aloud, "We'll look it over more when we get back."

Sonic gave her a thumbs up before grabbing Tails, picking him up. "Nice going little guy!"

The kit smiled at the attention. "It was nothing really..."

"Nothing really!? You just saved us what was probably going to be days of searching!" Sonic exclaimed, he was exaggerating the details a little, but he loved seeing Tails happy like this.

"Alright, put me down…"

He set the kitsune back on his feet, and proceeded to ruffle his bangs. "Hey!" Tails exclaimed, laughing as he did so.

After they had finished, they returned to the Tornado and flew themselves back to the house. Tails and Amy went back to the garage to study their new finding. Sonic went to join them, only to get a call on his phone.

"Hello?" He answered.

"Hello Maurice!" A voice he recognized as his mom spoke. "How you been!?"

Sonic smiled, "Great, just been doing what I'm always doing!"

"That's good to hear, you remember about our visit coming up right?"

Sonic grimaced, he had completely forgotten about that. "Uh… Yeah, I remember."

"That's great, we'll be in town in a day or two. I'll see you then!"

"Sweet, see you too."

Sonic hung up the phone and instantly was in a panic, he had completely forgotten about their visit! What would they think about Tails and Amy, knowing his mom, she'd probably assume that Amy and him were in love or something. He also wondered about Tails, he wasn't really himself around unfamiliar faces, he remembered his reaction when Amy had showed up the first time, and that was only one, four would probably give the young fox a heart attack.

He'd break it to them tomorrow, for now, he would just let them have their time to themselves. He wondered what they were up to, he started thinking about what he would tell the others, wanting to make sure his family would have a good first impression.

**Alright guys, looks like Sonic and the rest are in for a wild ride! Let me know what you thought in a review! Until next time!**


	13. Breaking Point

**Hello guys! I'm back! Let's get going!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Breaking Point** _

Sonic was naturally nervous, he wanted Tails and Amy to leave a good first impression on his family, he had them clean themselves up which prompted some protests from a certain young fox.

"Why do I need to take a bath?" He complained. "I'm clean as is!"

"No, you're not," Sonic commented. "You've got dirt all over in your fur, when was the last time you cleaned yourself?"

"Uhhhhh…"

"Exactly my point, you need a bath."

The kit grumbled in response before conceding. He removed his eyepatch and prosthetic hand before getting in, while they were waterproof, they were still vulnerable to rusting. Sonic was slightly off put by him not having a hand and just a mount he had attached to what was left of his arm.

Tails insisted on his ability to wash himself, but after struggling with only having one hand for a couple minutes, he allowed Sonic to help him. While he was working with the kit, he discovered something interesting. When he went to wash behind the kit's ears, the fox started softly purring and had his eyes roll back slightly.

"Like that?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah…" Tails absentmindedly responded.

Eventually the sopping wet kitsune stepped out and dried himself off, the dirt had been mostly washed out of his fur and he seemed much more content than when they had started. He seemed to like being clean for the first time in as long as he could remember.

"When's your family getting here?" Tails asked, still having several wet spots dotting his fur.

"Sometime later tonight, you look much better without dirt everywhere."

"I even feel clean, and strangely lighter."

"Because you don't have three pounds of dirt weighing you down!"

This response earned a chuckle from the kit. "You might be on to something there!"

Sonic ruffled the kit's wet bangs and then scratched behind the kit's ears again, earning him the same response as earlier.

"You  **really** like that, don't you…"?

"Don't stop…" He replied.

The hedgehog continued for a few more minutes before interrupting, "Alright, I've got to stop now, we need to straighten out that fur of yours."

Tails reluctantly accepted and started to brush out his fur, now that he had access to his hands again, he figured he could do it on his own.

Amy emerged while he was working. "Tails, what did you do to your face!?" She asked. He looked somewhat confused by her question, but quickly realized he had forgotten his eyepatch allowing his scar to be fully visible across his face.

"It's why I have to wear that eyepatch, so I can see properly out if it."

Amy nodded but kept an eye on him as he worked, just to see if he was actually alright.

With his new straightened fur, he looked exactly like he would have a few years ago, before losing his hand and when he still somewhat cared about himself.

"You look great Tails!" Amy commented, trying to get a positive reaction from the kitsune.

"Thanks, you look great as well!" He replied, grinning back at her. He'd been loving his life for the past couple days, he had received so many positive compliments and really felt appreciated for once.

"You sure you're ready for this Tails?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, for Sonic's family visiting."

"I think so, I'm cleaned up now, so I think I'm good!"

Amy gave him a thumbs up, but that wasn't exactly what she meant by the question. She was afraid that seeing Sonic's family could dig up something in the kitsune, hopefully he could keep it under control.

Sonic reentered the room, "Alright, workshop should be cleaned up. You guys made a mess down there!"

"I don't think we're the cleanest mechanics around, sorry about that." Amy replied.

"I needed to clean it anyways, the Chaos Emeralds have been stored downstairs, except for the Ruby, you find anything interesting with that Amy?"

"It's unlike anything I've heard of that's for sure, the energy it puts out is Chaos Energy, but it's so different that it feels strange calling it that."

"Anything you got from those scrolls?"

"Not really, I just can't seem to understand them, I'll need to do more research."

Sonic nodded and they finished preparing themselves for the visit ahead. They busied themselves until Sonic heard a knock at the door. Tails naturally went to hide due to his fear of others, he'd probably be back, it was just a bit overwhelming for him. Sonic answered it and was immediately pulled into a hug by a purple hedgehog.

"Maurice, I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Same goes for you Sonia!"

Next up was a green hedgehog, whom he exchanged a high five with. "Manic! How's it going!?"

"Going great! I still don't know why you didn't want to play guitar?"

"To be honest, I was never really the best at it, you're so much better than I would ever be."

"Thanks man!"

After followed Sonic's dad, Charles. Whom Amy instantly recognized, "You didn't tell me your dad was Charles!" She exclaimed, Charles had done research into the fundamental properties of Chaos Energy and was a respected figure in the field. She quickly engaged in a conversation with him. Finally, was Mercia, Sonic's mother and the one who had call him over the phone. She drew him into a tight hug, her quills were the same color as Sonia's which left Manic with the recessive traits of the family.

"Nice to see you!" She exclaimed, "Who's the girl with you?"

"Mom, we're not dating before you ask, she's just helping with some things."

Sonic noticed Tails peering into the room around the corner, Mercia also seemed to notice him as well.

"Hey little guy! Who are you?" She asked.

Tails recoiled slightly back behind his wall, causing Mercia to take a step back.

"It's ok Tails, this is my mom." Sonic encouraged.

Tails approached a bit more but stayed within the safety of his corner.

"He's…" Sonic began to explain, trying to think of a good word to describe Tails' behavior. "Shy..."

She tried to coax him out of his spot without frightening him, meanwhile Sonic took a seat with Sonia and Manic. "So, how's it going for you guys?"

"Just the usual," Manic replied. "Working with the band, one of these days we're going to blow up and then I'll really be famous!"

"Nice to see you haven't changed, how about you Sonia?"

"Still studying, space is the future."

"So, you've told me that, I still haven't seen everywhere on Earth and you're wanting to send us into space!"

"What, too much for your brain to handle?"

"No..."

"Is it too much for big bro to handle?" Manic teased.

"Quit it guys..."

The other two laughed before Sonia continued their conversation. "What've you been up to?"

"Treasure hunting like usual, been actually going very well."

"Is that why you hired an assistant?" Manic asked.

"She's not my assistant, and she's not my girlfriend before you ask..."

Manic slowly shut his mouth and relaxed again.

"I'm helping her locate something," He lied, not wanting to explain the whole story to them. "It's reall-"

"Well that's neat!"

Sonic looked over at his mother, whom of which had managed to get Tails out of his hiding spot, the fox in question was hovering off the ground. Probably demonstrating his abilities to her.

"Who's the little guy?" Manic asked, seemingly happy that he wasn't the youngest one in the household.

"That's Tails, he's... An orphan I'm looking after."

"Is he yours?"

"What do yo-"

"Like, did you adopt him?"

"What, no! He's nice but he was always bullied and picked on, I just wanted to give him a break."

Mercia walked over with Tails in tow, he seemed somewhat scared by Sonia and Manic so he hid behind Sonic as best he could.

"Tails, they're fine. Nobody here is going to hurt you."

He stepped out from his safe space and was quickly picked up by Manic. "You're just a cute little guy, especially your-"

Manic cut himself off as he realized something, the fox had two tails, out of surprise he set him down. Which caused the fox to recoil in fear, small tear droplets had built up in his eyes as he knew exactly what Manic was thinking.

"Tails," Sonic softly spoke, "He was-"

The fox burst into tears as everything boiled over and he ran out of the room sobbing as he did so.

"Tails wait!" Sonic yelled before being escorted back to his seat by Amy, whom had noticed the outburst.

"I'll talk to him, you stay here." She commanded, before following down the hall Tails had escaped through.

It took her a few minutes to figure out where the fox had gone, she found him huddled in a corner in the workshop.

"Tails, what's wrong? You looked like you were cry-" She began, kneeling down to his level. She spotted the glint of something metallic. "What you got there?"

The kitsune quickly tried to conceal the object behind him, Amy wasn't having any of it, she reached around him and yanked, revealing a short saw that the kit had.

"Tails… Why do you have this?" She asked, fearing for his mental health.

The kit looked down at the floor in shame, he took a short glance at his tails as he did so, and that was all Amy needed to piece it together.

"You weren't thinking about, why would you even- "

"Because I'm a freak!" He spouted out, "The only reason my life is torture is because of this!" He pulled one of his tails in front of himself. "My parents left me because of this! I'm bullied and beaten up daily because of this!" With each sentence his voice rose, and he shook his tail for emphasis. "Everything happened because I am a FREAK!"

Amy was stunned at the kit's angry outburst, so much so that she couldn't find words to answer him. They sat in silence, the only sound was Tails' breathing. Then suddenly, he had tears well up in his visible eye.

"Why couldn't I just have been normal!? I just- want parents who cared for me! Is that too much to ask!?"

Amy pulled the distraught fox into a hug, Tails just rested his head on her shoulder and sobbed. Amy still had no response, she just figured it needed to run its course, the kitsune obviously had some pent-up emotions he was dealing with.

"Why did it have to be me!? Why do I have to deal with this!? Just let me get rid of it, please…"

Amy could feel the desperation in his voice as he spoke through occasional sniffles. "Tails, I- I can't let you do that. It's not healthy to want to hurt yourself like that."

"Please, I can't take it anymore. I just want to be free…"

"I'm sorry you feel like that, but you have to know, your tails are what make you unique."

"I'm not 'unique', I'm a monster."

"You're not- "

"How am I not!?" Tails interrupted, anger tainting his voice as he pushed away from Amy. "Tell me!"

"Tails, I- "

"TELL ME!"

Amy let out a sigh, "Tails, you're our friend, I might not have known you as long as Sonic, but I like having you around. So, please just stop. This isn't you, this isn't my Tails."

For a moment, nothing was said between them. After a minute had passed, Tails broke the silence.

"I get it now… I understand…"

"Understand what?" Amy asked.

"Why you guys wanted to be my friends, I understand… You wanted to feel better about yourselves, so you found the most desperate kid you could and brought him along."

"That's not tru- "

"Shut up! I finally see it, I'm just another toy to you! Aren't I!?"

"Tails have you lost your mind!? We're just trying to help you!"

"You act like that! But I know the truth, you'll just abandon me, just like everyone else does!"

"That's not true!"

Tails' arm morphed into his cannon and he pointed it at her, charging the energy for a blast. "Liar!"

Before Amy could react, the shot slammed into her chest and everything went dark.

**-X-**

Tails started to cry more fiercely than ever before, in a frenzy he made a dash for the exit, running past Amy's limp form in the process. He wasn't going to be used any longer, on his way he noticed the ruby on the edge of his vision. Considering he would need something to get credits with, he grabbed it and burst out the door, leaving behind his only friends in the process.

**Alright guys, that's everything for today, let me know what you thought in a review and follow to be notified of updates. Until next time!**


	14. Spirit of the Ruby

**Hi everyone! I'm here with another update, but first some reviews!**

**(FFN Reviews)**

**TheGameNguyener: Thanks for your thoughts! Having been bullied all his life, he subconsciously locates any negative reason for things happening. He just doesn't know how to react to positive emotions because he's never been exposed to it. Sonic's bound to have his own thoughts on the events that have passed.**

**DaddlertheDalek: He's kind of been drifting the whole time, it was just that last little bit that pushed him over.**

**Piggon: With Tails missing, Sonic's going to be a bit concerned. Especially considering the series of events that happened. You'll have to read to find out what happens!**

**Let's get going!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Spirit of the Ruby** _

Tails darted through the trees as fast as he could, his vision blurred from the tears in his eyes.

" _Stupid, nobody could ever love you, you know that!"_ He mentally scolded.  _"Don't waste your time you freak!"_

He started to cry more intensely then before, he tripped over a small branch on the forest floor, landing on his face in the dirt. "Ow…" He added, lifting himself back to his feet. While he was still crying profusely, he had stopped running and had began to calm himself down.

" _Deep breaths Ta-"_ He stopped himself, he still did like the nickname and wasn't going to go back to using his old joke of a name anytime soon.  _"Calm down…"_

Eventually he felt he had gotten a hold of himself, at least that's what he thought. He retreated into his thoughts as he continued to walk. Letting his mind freely wander into the darkest parts of himself.

**-X-**

After having spent a few hours with his family, and properly scolding Manic for his behavior, Sonic was alone again, he decided to try and track down Tails and Amy, hoping she had found a way to calm him down. After checking for a couple minutes, he found his way into the workshop, there he found Amy sprawled out across the floor, he instantly moved to check her pulse and breathing, both seemed to be normal. He shook her, trying to get any response. She remained motionless, moving her to the living room, he set out to search for Tails as well, whom was still missing.

After searching the house thoroughly, he gave up on trying to locate the fox until Amy woke up, at least, that's what he hoped would happen.

After worrying himself for about two hours, Amy woke and slowly sat back up.

"Thank Chaos you're awake!" Sonic exclaimed. "What happened?"

"Tails, shot me."

"He shot you!?"

"I think so, he freaked out."

"Do you know where he is?"

"No, I was unconscious for the whole time afterward."

"This isn't good, he stole the ruby from the other day."

"Really?"

"Unless you moved it somewhere…" Sonic explained.

They didn't say anything for a second before Amy continued.

"He wanted to cut it off, he might hav-"

"What off?"

"One of his tails…"

"We need to find him, now, before he does anything he'll regret." Sonic added suddenly dead serious about the situation at hand.

He helped Amy to her feet, and they set back out into the trees, Amy was still a bit disoriented from the stun blast but seemed aware enough to help, Sonic still planned to keep a close eye on her though.

They searched for what felt like hours with no success, the fox was nowhere to be found. Due to difficulties seeing partway through, they returned to get lights to continue the search.

"I'm not sure we'll find him Amy," Sonic commented. "He's probably long gone by now…"

"We have to keep trying, he's got to be out here somewhere!"

**-X-**

Sure enough, Tails was still wandering throughout the trees, it had gotten dark several hours ago, making it difficult for him to see.

Deciding to settle down for the night where he was, he found a fallen tree and laid against it. Pulling his tails around himself for the night, he hugged the ruby kept in the center of the ball closer to him. He was rather warm due to his fur insulating him from the cold. Tails had gotten ahold of his emotions by now and was almost completely relaxed. He pulled his tails tighter around himself, it felt relaxing. He started to slowly doze off before he heard a voice.

"Tails!?" He recognized the voice as Sonic. He wanted to hide, but the voice was still far away, he debated on moving, but it was so comfortable and warm in his current position that he found it difficult to give that up.

He continued to doze off and finally found himself in the warm embrace of sleep.

As he did, another memory arose in his dreams. He was back on Cocoa Island, the island he recognized as the one he had met and fought Bean on. He was being yelled at by some of the denizens of the island.

"Freak of nature!"

"So, you're the reason why everything's awful here!"

"I say we kill him!"

In a panic he ran for the trees, trying to save his own life as best he could. Eventually he felt he had lost them. Only to have a dog leap out at him from the brush and pin him down. He thrashed against his restraints but was unable to overpower his captor.

"He's over here you guys!"

Several other Mobians appeared and they discussed what to do with the kit, eventually one of them produced a small knife he was carrying, the others tried to restrain Tails as best as they could.

"Just calm down, it'll only hurt for a second."

The kit refused as the assailant with a knife lined up a strike with his chest. As he went to end the fox's life, adrenaline took over and he flung himself downward, successfully dodging most of the strike.

Most…

The blade struck his face and instantly, Tails was temporarily blinded as he felt blood running down his face, he kicked at his assailants and freed himself before running off into the trees, back toward his cave, touching at the injury on his face as he ran, he felt the gentle taste of blood in his mouth as it inhibited his breathing.

**-X-**

Tails bolted awake, and darted to his feet, before realizing that it had all been another dream. He gently set himself back down on the dirt and reformed his ball, pulling the ruby, his now only possession, close to his chest. It almost seemed to radiate heat and keep him warm. He fell back asleep.

He found himself back in his mind, only this time, he was in a dark red void, nothing was visible in any direction, suddenly, a voice was heard.

"Hello Miles."

"W- Who are you?" The kit replied, not knowing where it was coming from.

"None of that matters," The voice spoke. "What matters is what you can do for me."

"Are you why I keep having these memories?"

"Precisely, this is the first time I've been able to fully connect with your subconscious mind."

"What do you want me for?"

"I need a vessel Miles…"

The kitsune stepped back, alarmed by the statement.

"What do you mean?"

"I am an immortal being, I have existed for eons, however, I have only done so because of my ability to reincarnate myself, using another as a vessel. In return, I will grant them my power."

"What power?"

"I am powerful beyond your wildest dreams Miles, I can help you. It may not look like it now, but I was once an outcast among the Gods, not unlike yourself. They were disgusted by my impurity, at the rawness of the energy I possessed, they cast me out. However, in doing so, I only became stronger."

Tails could practically hear the voice directly next to his head, though when he turned, nothing was to be found.

"We could accomplish so much together Miles, you would be powerful beyond all thought, everything you've ever dreamed at your fingertips. You would be a God."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"Why would I lie to you? After all, I need you."

Nothing was spoken between them for a moment, before the spirit broke the silence.

"We could be all powerful, nobody would ever even think about or call you a fre-"

"That's not true. You don't know what you're talking about." Tails replied.

"But I do Miles, believe me, I've been there. When I had my own mortal form centuries ago, back when the Gods walked Mobius as living beings. I was deceived by their compliments and flattery. I don't want the same to happen to you."

He pondered over his statement for a moment. "Why are you telling me this?" He asked.

"I'm trying to protect you Miles, the world will never see you more than a- mutant. However, you are so much more than that, with my help, you could be whatever you want to be, finally get revenge on everyone who's ever wronged you! Do you know what those dreams you've been having are about?"

The kit shook his head, he had no clue about any of it.

"When I first tried to bond to your mind, so we could have the chat we're having right now. I found some memories, ones you had intentionally locked away, never to feel again. Do you know what they were?"

"I- I remember some of it, I was fighting birds to defend my home. They didn't believe I deserved to fly."

"Exactly! Now, was there anything else you were fighting for?"

"I didn't want anybody else on the island to get hurt… Yeah, they were mean to me, but I didn't want the whole place to get taken over!"

"Do you remember what they did when they found out what you had done?"

"I, don't…"

"They were repulsed, they knew you had two tails already, but now that they knew you could fly, there must have been some curse you were projecting across the island with dark magic. They almost killed you, left you without your full sight, thinking it would somehow bring an end to their sorrows."

"Then why did I remember losing it another way?"

"Because, you didn't know why they weren't accepting of you, you had saved their lives, and your reward was more pain and suffering. You pushed off the memories of knowing how to fly, along with any knowledge you had of the experience, replacing them with something else to protect yourself."

Suddenly, all the memories of forgotten events came flooding back all at once, Miles clutched his head, it almost felt like it would split open at any minute.

"You were a hero, but they refused, as many have, to see past your unique gifts." The spirit continued.

Miles waited on the tidal wave of memories to pass over before asking another question.

"Do you have a name? I want to have something to call you."

"Normally I wouldn't bother myself with such things, but, if you must, call me Phantom."

He nodded before continuing, "How long would I have your powers?"

"Until I have reincarnated myself, then, you can revoke them at any time."

The kitsune thought it over, would he still be viewed as a freak? Maybe, this was finally his chance to break the cycle he had found himself in, finally be accepted as something more.

"Alright… I'll, think about it."

"I will return tomorrow night, I hope you make the right choice."

The kit could almost feel the spirit's presence leave his mind and he found himself once again, alone.

**Alright guys, that's everything for now, sorry about the slightly shorter chapter than usual, but I wanted to end it off here because of the setup for next chapter. Let me know what you thought! Until next time!**


	15. Spirit of the Emerald

**Hello! Let's get started!**

**(FFN Reviews)**

**TheGameNguyener: It's ok to be late, I'm never really writing these for the reviews, it's because I enjoy writing them! Even if I got no responses I'd probably still finish it. They're just a bit extra. Happy to know you were alright with the slightly shorter chapter! :)**

**DaddlerTheDalek: Sure seems that way, you'll have to wait and see where it goes!**

**That's all, let's go!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Spirit of the Emerald** _

"Amy, it's hopeless. We'll just have to hope he ends up back here."

Amy sighed, as much as she doesn't want to admit it, Sonic had a point. They had been search all of last night and part of the afternoon with no success. Tails was probably long gone by now.

"I feel terrible."

"You did everything you could, Tails is just really insecure."

"I still feel like there was something I could have said…"

"We'll find him Amy, it's just going to take some time."

She nodded and they returned to Sonic's house. They figured they'd get another Emerald found while they waited.

Sonic grabbed a note and wrote a message on the fridge, just in case Tails returned while they were gone.

"Hey bud, glad to see you're back. Me and Amy are out on an Emerald search right now, but we should be back soon! I'm sorry for Manic's behavior the other day, I don't think he knew what he was doing. I hope you can forgive me."

-Sonic

He attached the note, before feeling the familiar nauseating sensation that announced Tikal's arrival. He sat down and shut his eyes, this time he was on a forested plain. He didn't recognize it, but he figured he didn't need to. The familiar echidna spirit appeared before him.

"Let me guess," He began. "There a part of some prophesy I'm falling behind on."

"You're well behind now, Kilas is already taking action."

"Who's Kilas?"

"I will have the Guardian explain, travel to the floating island, we will discuss more there."

He had the vision fade away and he was back in his house. He shook the nausea out of his head and grabbed Amy, explaining the vision to her and where they needed to go.

"Sounds pretty serious, who's this guardian?"

"There was, at least what I thought to be, an echidna on the island. He would fit the description."

"Neat, well let's go!"

They both climbed into the Tornado and started the flight toward the island. Several hours later, they had arrived. Sonic brought the plane down on the outer edge of the island. Acting on a hunch, he led Amy through the trees to the large Emerald he had visited. They were greeted by the red echidna from earlier.

"You!" He exclaimed, pointing his spear at Sonic. "I thought I told you to leave this place!"

"I would have, but considering I was just summoned here by a spirit, I think I have a good reason."

The echidna turned to the large gemstone next to him. "Tikal, you know about this?"

An image of the echidna spirit appeared by the stone. "Yes, I called him here."

"What use do we have for a thief?"

"I'm right here!" Sonic yelled.

The echidna ignored his statement, Tikal continued.

"Kilas has awoken, he's proved very helpful in locating the Chaos Emeralds."

"That's not possible, Kilas has been missing for millennia!"

Sonic interupted their converstaion. "Alright lady, you owe me some answers! What are these Chaos Emeralds for? Who is Kilas?"

"Kilas is an ancient being of immense power. A god of revelry and destruction. He despised the other gods, whom he believed cast him out due to not having as refined of power. He grew bitter and tried to destroy Mobius, only by banding together were the other gods able to stop him. They destroyed his physical form and trapped his essence inside a gem. I have felt him awaken recently, he must have found another potential vessel."

Sonic and Amy shot each other a glance. "What would this gem look like?" Amy asked.

"Spherical in shape, and dark red in color."

"I- think we may have found it…"

"Do you have knowledge of its whereabouts?"

"Not exactly, a friend of ours got upset and stole it."

Now it was time for Knuckles and Tikal to glance at one another.

Tikal broke the silence, "I fear greatly for your friend, I believe Kilas intends to use him as a host to further his revenge. He must be stopped."

"And how would we go about that?" Sonic asked.

"That brings me to your other question, the Chaos Emeralds, and the Master Emerald contain essences of the other gods. It was done incase if Kilas were to ever break free of his prison."

"Hold up, are you saying you're a god?" Sonic asked.

"In essence, yes. I only take this form so you can comprehend my being. Knowing Kilas is attempting to bind to his new physical host, leaves us with two options. We could find your friend before he is bound and get the Phantom Ruby back, or we could locate the other Chaos Emeralds and try to defeat him with that.

Sonic and Amy turned to one another. Eventually, they decided on an agreement.

"We'll take the second one," Sonic responded. "We've already got four found."

"Five." The red echidna replied, producing another Chaos Emerald the color of lavender.

"Make that five, I don't think we'll be finding Tails anytime soon, the Chaos signature disappeared after he took the Ruby."

"Then it's already started, we need to find the Emeralds immediately. Before Kilas can gain his full power."

"Well, we could certainly use some help, I don't think I quite got your name." Sonic replied, looking to the red echidna.

"It's Knuckles, Guardian of the Master Emerald."

"Nice to meet you, you're not a bad guy when you're not freezing me or trying to kill me. Speaking of which, how did you do that?"

"It's a technique my ancestors pioneered, they called it Chaos Control, it allows for manipulation of time around a subject."

"That's neat, anything else you can do Mr. Guardian?"

"Don't call me that."

Tikal interrupted them. "If you get the chance, try and get your friend out of Kilas' influence. Do not engage him however, his power will be beyond what we can handle."

Sonic nodded, "We'll start figuring out where the next Emerald is."

They set off a short distance from the shrine, Tikal called for Knuckles alone.

"Knuckles, forget what I just said about talking him out of it. If you find him… Kill him, we cannot allow Kilas to regain a physical form, even if it means killing a child."

Knuckles hesitated for a moment, before replying. "Understood."

"I mean it Knuckles, you cannot hesitate. Kilas must not be allowed to rise again."

Knuckles set off back toward the other two, the new task he was given fresh in his mind. "Would I really kill a child?" He asked himself. "He would die either way if Kilas gains control. I suppose I don't get much of a choice."

"Hey Knuckles, we're going to be headed due West of here. There's a city nearby with a Chaos signature. Looks like there's a storm brewing though, we'll need to get moving."

He nodded in response, they all decided that Sonic would be best off flying, Knuckles volunteered to not take a seat. All clambering back into the craft, they set off to the West. Knuckles still going over with the command he had been presented with.

**-X-**

Tails was still busy wandering the world on his own, he was thinking about Phantom's conversation from last night. Phantom had promised him power, a peaceful life. Even if he could be lying, it was an offer he simply couldn't refuse.

He heard a roar of thunder in the distance and smiled. He located a small outcropping in a cliff to sleep in for the night, he cleaned away an area for him to lay down in, as he did the sounds of falling rain could be heard from his newfound home as they echoed through the trees, inter spaced by crackles of thunder and flashes of lightning.

He stepped out into the rain, extended his arms out to his sides and threw his head back so he could feel the rain softly striking him across his face. His fur started to absorb some of the water that impacted it.

Tails hadn't always liked storms, when he was younger he was terrified of them. Astrophobia, or fear of lightning was what one might call it. However, as he had grown older, he realized something, he was never bothered during storms. Whenever stormy weather gathered overhead, everybody seemed to almost leave him alone, he was never picked on or beaten on those days. He found that most other kids parents had them stay inside, they didn't want them getting themselves soaked after all. Storms slowly started to become a guardian angel to Tails in some ways. He would cherish his time encased in their safety, allowing their threatening demeanor to scare away anything that tried to harm him.

Another crack of thunder split the air, the action allowing the kit to relax. He was safe now, nothing could hurt him. After a few minutes, and getting thoroughly soaked, he returned to shelter and pulled into his ball. He let the sounds of thunder and the echoes of rain act as a lullaby to gently carry him off to sleep.

He was back in the dark red void from the other night, he sat himself down and waited. After a couple minutes, he heard the familiar voice.

"Had time to think it over?"

"I think so."

"What did you decide?"

"I'll be your vessel."

"Thank you, you won't regret this Miles, I'll make sure of it."

"Call me Tails."

"Alright, now, this could hurt for a second."

Tails stepped back out of fear. "What do you mean?"

"I need to properly fuse myself with your physical form, it shouldn't be too bad."

Tails relaxed at this statement, "Alright, go ahead."

He felt a short jolt of pain in his chest area, the action causing him to bolt awake. Looking down, he found the ruby had embedded itself in his chest. He stepped out into the rain to look himself over in a nearby pool, he didn't really look much different. He took his eye patch off and was stunned at the appearance of his eye. It had fully healed, the scar was only slightly visible, the main bit that caught him off guard was the color of it. His left eye was still the bright blue he was used to, but his injured right one had turned to a vibrant orange. He reached down and lightly tapped on the ruby protruding from his chest. He smiled, and started to laugh out of pure joy.

A small crimson wisp appeared next to his head, it was a small triangular being with three orange eyes across its form. Three fin like protrusions extended from behind it as it floated by him, it seemed completely alien in nature. He heard Phantom's voice emanate from the being.

"Somebody's happy."

"You fixed my eye!" Tails exclaimed, not seeming to care about the change in color.

"I can do so much more than that for you."

"Like what?"

"Look behind you."

Tails did as he was instructed and found only one orange tail trailing behind him, but he could still feel the second one somewhere.

"What the…"

The second one reappeared, materializing in a haze of crimson.

Phantom spoke, "Illusions are powerful tools, you now have access to then as well."

"Teach me."

"Let's get started…"

**That's all for now, let me know what your thoughts were! Until next time!**


	16. Chain of Command

**Hello everyone! Here's the reviews from last time!**

**(FFN Reviews)**

**TheGameNguyener: I had quite a few parallels between the two chapters. I wanted to kind of introduce the idea that this is much bigger than just the three of them. Meanwhile, Tails hates his second tail, so he's rather happy to have it gone. Getting to be normal for a while.**

**(AO3 Comments)**

**McCrystalKitty: I'm not quite sure what you said, I don't think I can do a cover image on AO3 like FFN. :(**

**Alright, let's get going!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Chain of Command** _

"Yes! Like that!"

Tails looked down at himself, the red gemstone in his chest had a vibrant glow to it, his fur had transformed from the usual orange to a deep black. He smiled, he had been doing a lot of that since he had fused with his newfound friend. He released the illusions, turning back into his normal orange self.

"You're getting good at this," The familiar crimson wisp replied.

"What else can I do?" The soaked kit asked, the rain hadn't stopped, and personally, he found it relaxing with the occasional crackles of thunder.

"Extend out your hand, palm facing forward, channel the energy the same way you would cast an illusion."

He did as he was instructed, causing a cone shaped shard of what looked to be glass in front of him. "What is that?"

"That is a small rift into null space, an area between dimensions. It's incredibly sharp, I wouldn't suggest touching it."

"What do I do with it?"

"It's a weapon, you can propel it through the air."

Tails thought through his command and the shard shot off away from him, embedding itself in a nearby tree trunk. He jumped back in surprise. The crimson wisp continued to hover near him anxiously.

"I like that," Tails responded. "Makes it so I don't have to use my arm for defense."

"I figured you'd say that."

"Why didn't you fix my hand, like you did my eye?"

"I would if I could, I can only fix smaller wounds. The eye was small enough to fix easily."

"It's alright, I don't mind it. Just a bit of a memory, that's all." Tails replied.

"Speaking of memories, I found some you might find interesting."

"I don't want to know, if I don't remember it, it's for good reason."

"Aren't you just a bit curious? Know more about your past?"

Tails sharply inhaled, "Alright… I want to know."

The small wisp turned into a speck of light and floated down to the kit's chest, entering back into the ruby. He felt the memory start to surface. He grabbed it and let it start.

It was somewhat fuzzy, but he could still make out the majority of what was happening. The memory had a negative aura over it, which already had him on edge. He was back on Myire Island, the one T-Pup had been…

He could feel the depression that had set in after losing his only family. He felt overwhelmed with sorrow. He wanted to end his own life, he didn't want to live anymore without T-Pup, he just couldn't. Tails didn't want to deal with the memory anymore, he quickly shut it out, ending it abruptly.

"Why would you show me that!?" Tails asked, wiping stay tears from his eyes.

"I thought you would be interested in learning more about yourself." The voice spoke from within his mind. "For research purposes."

"Not like that! I just, don't show me anymore memories."

"Alright… I thought you'd like to know."

Tails returned toward his small cave alcove, he was tired from using his illusions. He wanted to sleep. He pulled into a ball and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

He awoke the next morning, he was met by the familiar voice in his head.

"Morning Tails."

"Morning," The fox yawned. "Anything else you're going to teach me?"

"We don't have the time for that, I need your help."

"What for?"

"There's something I need you to locate for me, it's called a Chaos Emerald, I'm certain you are familiar with them?"

Tails nodded, even though Phantom was only speaking in his head. "What are they for?"

"I'm afraid you have been deceived by Sonic, they are a weapon of immeasurable power. Capable of conquering the world, I seek to destroy them, preventing them from falling into the wrong hands."

"Where would we start?"

Tails felt a lightening sensation, his surroundings disappeared into a void of crimson before his vision returned, he was near a village of some sort, within the trees he could see homes.

"What just happened?"

"Teleportation, I can't do it very often, but this should be where it is."

Tails emerged from the trees, changing his fur to a deep black and concealing one of his tails and robotic arm, he walked past a nearby shop. Noticing that the owner was distracted by another customer, he stole a small brown jacket and threw it on, staring his own hunt for the Chaos Emerald.

**-X-**

The trio continued toward the nearest Chaos signature, it was near a village of some sort, Sonic set the plane down and the group jumped out. Amy reproduced the tracking device, pointing them toward the small village. The sun was just starting to rise as they arrived, having stayed the night by the plane. The Chaos Emerald was somewhere around here, where exactly was up to debate. They moved to check more ground, spreading out to allow better searching.

Amy, being left with the Emerald tracker, couldn't get Tails out of her head, she had started to see the two of them as friends. Tails had really trusted her, or at least, she thought. His outburst the other day still stuck with her, and she hoped he hadn't done anything rash. She was given some odd looks by the other people she past, continuing to search around, not paying attention to where he was headed, she ran into a random passerby, a black fox with oddly colored eyes.

"I'm so sorry, I should have been watching where I'm going!" Amy apologized. The other fox didn't respond, pulling his jacket's hood over his head and continuing. Amy continued where she was headed, after a while, she became aware she was being followed, she continued to walk, intentionally stepping over a dirt patch, hearing the stones crunch underfoot. Shortly after she heard the same noise produced by another set of feet, confirming her suspicions. She rounded a corner and prepared, as the figure rounded the corner, she grabbed at him and threw him against the wall. It was the black fox from earlier, she held him across the throat. "What do you want?"

A thick crimson smoke consumed the fox, causing Amy to release him in surprise, after it cleared, a set of familiar eyes looked up at her.

"Tails?"

"Amy?"

She ran over and pulled the kit into a hug. "Tails! Where have you been!?"

"I thought you didn't want me…"

"I'm sorry for what I said, what did you do to your eye?"

"I… Got some help fixing it."

"And what's with the black fur? How did you do that!?"

Tails removed his jacket, having the Phantom Ruby on full display. Amy's eyes widened at its appearance. "Tails, do you want to come with us again?"

Tails went to respond, only to hear Phantom's voice invade his thoughts. "You don't! She's using you Tails!"

The kit paused for a second before responding. "I'd- like that…"

Amy released him and patted him on the back. "I'm just so happy to see you again!"

Tails couldn't help but smile, he felt at home again, the empty feeling in his chest had vanished, being replaced by a warm safe feeling. Phantom continued to mutter into his mind, but he quickly shut it out, he'd deal with him later, right now, he just wanted to be with Amy.

He pulled his jacket back over himself and followed Amy out of the back alley, cautiously staying behind her and somewhat out of sight from any passersby, who gave him occasional strange looks because of his tails.

"I won't let then hurt you," Amy tried to comfort, this helped him slightly, but not by much.

They wandered the streets for a bit and caught up on what had happened. Amy was very concerned about the Phantom Ruby protruding from the fox's chest. From what she had heard from Tikal and Sonic, she was considered that it might be too late to prevent him from fusing with the Ruby. She was just trying to find Sonic or Knuckles, maybe they knew what to do about it.

Tails still tried to hide from anybody they passed, Amy noticed that he had potentially regressed back to the way he had been when they had first met, constantly paranoid and scared of everyone.

Phantom was becoming more and more persistent, breaking through Tails' mental block. "Don't blame me when this all goes south!" He yelled, Tails tried to shut him out again but was unable to this time as his voice hammered into his head.

Amy spotted Knuckles and ran over to him, pulling Tails behind her. Knuckles was shocked by the kit's appearance and seemed to tense up. Amy explained how she had found him and pulled off Tails' jacket, causing several protests from the fox. Knuckles was paying little attention to what she said and instead focused on the ruby the kit possessed, he had already fused with it and the question arose as to if he was even still in control anymore.

Sonic noticed them and ran over, ruffling Tails' bangs once he got close enough.

"Tails! Where you been buddy!?"

The kit laughed and Knuckles sighed to himself, he couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to kill him. He stepped away from the group, tightening his grip on the spear he had. Tikal's command echoed in his head again and he figured he'd have to, whether he wanted to or not. He pulled up the spear and lined up the throw, told himself he was doing the right thing, and released it toward Tails. Whom was busy paying attention to Sonic and Amy, the sudden movement caused Tails to spin, the weapon struck him directly in the chest, he fell backward, feeling the air rush out of his lungs. Phantom took over from self preservation and teleported Tails away. He fell to the grassy floor beneath him, gasping for breath.

"It hurts, it really hurts!" The kit yelled, convulsing on the floor.

"Calm down! You're only making it worse!"

Blood had stained the fur on his chest, slowly pouring out from around the spear now embedded in him.

Tails tried his hardest to calm himself, slowly standing up and placing a hand to his chest, trying to stop some of the bleeding, he grabbed at the shaft of the weapon and was about to pull before Phantom stopped him.

"Don't pull it out! I know it hurts but it's the only thing that's keeping you alive!"

The fox slowly rose to his feet, steadying himself against a nearby tree, he spotted a nearby outcrop and started toward it, leaving bloody handprints as he went.

He arrived, only to find a very familiar cave, it was his old home on Cocoa Island. He sat down, continuing to gasp for what little air he could take in.

"Alright," Phantom began. "Take it out, slowly… You're going to bandage it as soon as it's out to try and stop losing too much blood.

He grabbed the weapon and gently pulled, the weapon generated a sickening squelching noise as it slowly removed from his wound, he screamed from the extreme pain. Having to stop multiple times due to pain, he eventually freed the spear, using bandages to try and stop some of the bleeding, it proved too much for him and eventually, he passed out from blood loss, allowing what little was left in him to slowly seep out onto the floor.

Phantom in desperation, asserted control over the kit's body, using everything he could to stop him from dying, which was becoming an increasingly possible occurrence. He could feel the kit's mind fading away as he worked tirelessly to stop the bleeding. Mentally, Tails was gone, but he could still maybe save his physical body. Perhaps, even find a way to pull his spirit back. He needed this kid, and he wasn't going to let a perfectly good vessel go to waste…

**Alright guys, that's it for now. Let me know what you thought, until next time.**


	17. Bound Together

**Hello guys! I'm back! I've got the regular reviews and then a quick announcement!**

**Piggon: He had his orders from a literal God, I don't think he'd be one to back out of that, even if he was reluctant to carry through with it. Also, I'm happy you're eager to see what happens, regular reviews or not! I can tell people are enjoying this by views jumping to a consistent 250 or more on posting days!**

**DaddlerTheDalek: Considering Tails got impaled, I'd say ugly is an understatement.**

**Guest: I have politely blocked your review, as much as I like getting them, being called an imbecile for having my own ideas compared to a two-year-old theory is a bit of a stretch. I'm sorry if you don't enjoy the story but I do.**

**Alright, one quick announcement. I have two story ideas I'm going to write soon, and I want to know which you guys want to see first! There is a poll on my profile page (Enable Desktop View on your phone) and I would love some input on which you want to see first! I'll write both, because I have some great ideas for them and am excited to begin!**

**That's everything for now, let's get started!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Bound Together** _

Phantom let out another burst of Chaos Energy into the kit's limp body. Nothing happened, he quickly reconnected to the kitsune and could feel the fox's soul leaving his body. He tethered it to the Phantom Ruby, slowing the kit's death. He let out another Chaos Burst, still nothing.

" _You idiot! You let Tikal stop you, again!"_

Tails' blood had coated the ground around the kit's body. There was no movement, no breathing for a few minutes now, he was almost certainly dead.

" _No, No! You're not dying on me! Not when I'm this close!"_

Phantom charged him again, while simultaneously yanking on the tether connecting their souls together. The kitsune bolted upright and his eyes shot open, before promptly vomiting more blood out of him.

"I can't hold this forever you know!" The familiar voice spoke to him. "You're running on pure Chaos Energy and my willpower at the moment, get bandaging!"

Tails stood to his feet, letting some of his own blood flow down his fur as he quickly started bandaging himself, he felt incredibly weak, and nauseated as he worked. He wanted nothing more than to fall asleep. Eventually, the temptation was too much, and he collapsed, his heart once again stopping. Phantom preformed the same maneuver as earlier and shot another wave of Chaos Energy into him.

The kit was revived, and he finished his bandages. Phantom continued to charge him with additional Chaos Energy to keep him alive and start a healing process as Tails' body began to try and create more blood to keep him alive.

"Why do I feel so terrible?" Tails asked, still woozy from the effects of blood loss.

"You mean that empty feeling? It's because you're still technically dead, your soul isn't fully connected to your body, I'm literally stopping it from leaving you as we speak."

Tails went to pass out again, only to have a shockwave of pain fire through him. "Don't fall asleep!" Phantom yelled.

Tails stepped out of his cave, doing anything to occupy his mind. He finally stumbled and collapsed, he couldn't go any further. Random thoughts started running through him, he had been so stupid letting his guard down like he had.

" _Sonic and Amy wouldn't attack me like that, would they?"_ He remembered how happy Amy had been when she saw him again, and the happy feeling that had accompanied it. He sat up and pulled the hood of his bloodstained jacket over him.

A small smile crossed his face, even though he had almost died, he strangely felt good. He felt that simple warm feeling whenever he thought of Sonic and Amy. It could only be explained as a somewhat motherly feeling. He wanted to be back with them, tell them he was alright. As he sat, he heard sets of footsteps approaching.

"Well, look who decided to show back up! Where have you been, miss us?"

Tails didn't respond to the question, dreading the upcoming beating. The voice belonged to Tyler, a fox older than him that had bullied and terrorized Tails during his time on Cocoa Island. He assumed that Tyler's two lackeys were with him.

"Thought you could hide yourself from us?" The elder fox added, noting the jacket pulled over the kit's head. "That's cute, I think it's about time for us to have some fun!"

Tails heard the familiar voice inside his head begin. "Don't put up with this Miles, show them what you can do."

"No! Even if I hate them, they don't deserve to be hurt because of it!"

"They've caused you too much suffering! I know you've waited for years to have this chance, I can feel your anger, unleash me!"

For a moment, he was tempted, before he could decide however, he was jolted out of his thoughts as he was hoisted into the air by the scruff of his neck. He braced himself as he was thrust to the ground, the impact knocking the wind out of him and blurring his vision. Panting, he shakily rose to all fours. The anger he had contained toward them for so long was overwhelming.

"Out of breath already!? We're just getting started! I bet you forgot how much fun this was you freak!"

The kit rose back to his feet, he felt a patch of damp fur appearing on his forehead as he growled at his assailants.

"Leave me ALONE!" He yelled, he felt the familiar power coursing through him as he extended his arm out to face his attackers, glass-like red spikes materialized in front of him and assaulted his attackers. Slashing their skin and fur alike, they let out screams as they were torn open by the barrage. Blinded by his rage, the tempest continued to grow and he found himself smiling at their pain. How long he had waited for this moment! Years of bottled anger released within the span of a few seconds, creating an absolutely deafening barrage of crystal.

Eventually he ceased the onslaught, allowing the crushed crystalline dust to settle. He was horrified to see what he had done, the other fox among the group had been impaled countless times and was practically unrecognizable, he didn't stir or even appear to be breathing. The other two, a monkey and bear, despite not receiving the bulk of the assault, still appeared heavily injured, they were covered in slashes across their bodies, the blood matching the color of the shards the ground was coated with. He rushed over to the other two, despite their injuries, they recoiled in fear to the young kit.

"You killed him you freak!" One of them yelled at him, a few other Mobians, having heard the commotion and what they could only assume had to be a hurricane, had appeared from the nearby village to investigate. They appeared shocked at the appearance of the corpse, along with the injuries to the survivors. They began to try and restrain Miles, yelling at him as more continued to appear.

"You monster!"

"I always knew he would do something like this!"

"What did they ever do to you!?"

"Freak! You claim to be like us!?"

"It's that mutant kid!"

Miles was struck across the face, collapsing to the dirt, he could feel tears streaking down his face at their comments. "I didn't- Didn't mean it…"

"I say we kill him! This is what we get for letting him stay around as long as we have!"

The others agreed, beginning a relentless onslaught onto the kit, attempting to shield himself from it proved to be fruitless as he was struck again and again. His chest flaring up and hurting much more than any other area.

"Do something! Anything!" He mentally yelled in desperation, no sooner than he had spoke a purple vortex appeared by him, drawing all his assailants from him, dragging them to an unknown fate. They screamed as they were dragged away from him. Instantly, he was met with silence. He slowly sat back up, feeling dried blood on his face.

"What did you do!?" He mentally yelled at the spirit. The red wisp materialized next to his head.

"Completed your revenge and saved your life! You've endured their torment for far too long!"

"I didn't mean kill them! I-"

He stopped his train of thought. It, as much as he didn't want to admit it, felt satisfying. He was finally free from the constant attacks he had endured his entire life, freedom felt amazing, and powerful. He smiled and began to softly chuckle, eventually though they turned into deep sobs.

"What is wrong with me?" He muttered, his voice trembling as he spoke. "Why can't I just be normal!?"

"I might be able to help..." The familiar voice commented.

"Leave me alone."

"Not really sure I can do that, if anything, you should be happy!"

"Now I'm just going to be hated even more!"

"I'm not sure you exactly understand what's happened here, there isn't anybody left to hate you!"

"I still killed them, from here on, no more of those powers... Never again...

" The kit sniffled.

"Cheer up Miles…" The red wisp replied, orbiting around his head as it did. "You're finally free!"

"I miss Sonic and Amy, especially Amy, she was nice to me. We should head back, they've probably been looking for me."

"Have you forgotten our conversation when we first met? Are you so desperate and pathetic that you'll call them friends, even though they're exploiting you?"

"They were my friends, I'm heading back, and you have to come with."

The kit stood back up and tried to teleport, only to have no response. Suddenly, he had a splitting headache and was back on his knees again in pain.

"You're so naive, did you really think I would just pass up my first opportunity in a millennia just because you want to go back?"

The red wisp returned into Miles' chest, and instantly the kit felt as if he had burst into flame. Overwhelmed with pain at this point, he felt his mind and body slipping away.

"You really thought a mere mortal like yourself could stop me?" Miles spoke, his mouth and voice moving without his command rather than hearing the voice like he was used to. "You really are so gullible."

The last thing he heard before everything went black, was Phantom's laughter echoing through his thoughts.

**Once again slightly shorter than usual, but I didn't want to leave you guys in suspense for too long! Let me know your thoughts, both on this story, and which one I should do next!**


	18. City of the Sun

**Hello everyone! I'm not going to waste any time! I'm back from a trip to New York so sorry for the long wait!**

**TheGameNguyener: He's certainly not going to be happy about being manipulated again, much less after he left somebody who was capable of actually helping him.**

**That's everything from last time, but before we begin, I have a new story on my profile! Feel free to check it out!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**City of the Sun** _

Sonic and Amy were in complete shock, Knuckles had just flat out tried to kill Tails, where the fox had just been seconds ago was now an empty void, with the only evidence that he had ever been there being small blood patches on the ground.

Amy was naturally freaking out, completely assaulting Knuckles as to his purpose for the unprovoked attack. Sonic, while angry at the Echidna, understood why exactly he had done what he did. He couldn't deny that Miles was a major threat to the world, especially now that he had fully connected to the Phantom Ruby. Considering the fox's history and mental state, it didn't take him long to create an image of how much damage the fox could do if he wanted. He more than likely, would be out for revenge, possibly against the entire world.

He was trying his best to ignore the loud threats from his female companion. Knuckles meanwhile, was receiving the full force of Amy's wrath. The pink hedgehog had drawn her hammer and was busy interrogating the echidna, not giving him enough time to answer the questions she asked.

"What were you thinking!?"

"I-"

"Tails is just a child! You probably killed him for heavensakes!"

"I know that I-"

"You tried to murder a child! He's never going to trust anybody after this! Do you have any idea what he's been through!?"

"Well I-"

"And if I figure out you actually succeeded!? You better pray to whatever God you worship, cause you're going to need it!"

"Amy! Amy!" Sonic yelled, grabbing her hammer by the top. "Let him explain, I know you're mad, but just give him a second!"

She let out a angry exhale before lowering her weapon, she kept it in hand though, she didn't quite trust Sonic's judgement.

Knuckles began to try and create an explanation, telling Amy that he had been instructed by Tikal to kill him and stop Kilas from returning at any cost. This resulted in her having another short outburst at Tikal. Undeterred, the echidna continued.

"Kilas is more powerful than you can imagine, the legends say his connection to the natural Chaos Energy in the air was unparalleled, even among the other Gods. It allowed him to perform feats thought to be impossible, his ability to manipulate others allowed him to grow his ranks, granting his servants power in exchange for loyalty."

The echidna paused before continuing.

"Even Kilas' minions housed incredible might, because of their master's strength, many were able to create constructs of pure energy. When they were killed, they had to be burned for fear of Kilas' raising them from death itself."

Chills ran down Sonic and Amy, causing their spines to stand on end.

"He was eventually stopped, however, his power was too great to be contained by normal means, a specially designed prison, the Phantom Ruby, was created to contain him. However, even it didn't prove perfect, Kilas still possessed the ability to manipulate and spread his power. It wasn't anywhere near what he was fully capable of, but considering the Ruby was created with the sole purpose of containing him and it wasn't enough I believe is the best testament to his strength. He must be stopped, no matter the cost."

Amy let out a quiet sigh at this, it did explain the echidna's behavior, and while she didn't like him trying to kill Tails, she understood why he would have done it.

"Well next time, let me talk to him, I think he trusts me. He might not have been influenced by Kilas' magic."

"He's fully connected to the Ruby, meaning, more than likely, he's felt Kilas' influence in some ways. It's undeniable at this point."

"You can break it, right?"

"I, don't believe so. It took the power of the Chaos Emeralds to even contain him, as far as I'm aware, it's impossible to actually intentionally break his link to his host. Kilas would have to give it up willingly."

With this, Amy's heart dropped. She thought she could simply break Tails out of the situation he had found himself in, knowing that the connection was practically irreversible made her reconsider her approach, and whether or not the fox could be saved.

She had planned for it to be simple, just talk him out of it, maybe get Tails to calm down and start trusting others again. She just hoped he was doing alright.

Sonic interjected, "Well, if the Chaos Emerald are the only way to stop him, then we need to finish finding them."

Knuckles nodded and they continued their search, Amy paused for a bit longer, she took one last glance toward where Tails had been, noticing the small blood spots on the ground. She just hoped, that against all odds, he was still ok…

**-X-**

Kilas took a deep breath, it had been forever since he had a physical body. He felt the pure Chaos Energy flowing through him, unrestricted by his prison or physical puppet. At long last, he was free.

Well, not exactly…

_"What are you doing!?"_

How he hated that insufferable voice, it was even worse that it now belonged to him. But, he had to manage with what he had been given. He let out a short chuckle at the kit's stupidity.

"Don't you get it? I don't need you anymore," He spoke, his voice perfectly mirroring that of the one inside his head. "All I needed was somebody to use as a physical body, and, while I would have liked somebody a bit more, physically built, yours will do nicely…"

He could almost sense the anger from the kit, before it slowly dissolved into deep sorrow. "What's the matter?" Kilas asked mockingly.

_"Was I just a puppet? Did you make me leave friends who cared for me, just so you could use me?"_

"It was so easy! You're so desperate for anybody that you were just too caught up in it to realize!"

The kit had no response, Kilas figured he was too busy crying and wallowing in his sorrow. He didn't continue the conversation, rather, extending his hand out and raising it toward the sky.

On his command, the nearby stones and dirt began to rise in the air, red Chaos Energy cracking arcing from the fragments, they assembled themselves into two golems, both of them turning to face their master.

Kilas smiled to himself, he still knew how to manipulate Chaos Energy, while it had faded slightly, it would be more than sufficient. He closed his palm into a fist and the golems dissolved back into pieces, their red glow instantly vanishing.

He pulled the surrounding energy around him and focused on a destination, the world slipped out from below him and he felt the familiar force pushing him to his destination. He smiled, free at last…

**-X-**

After several hours, the trio had managed to locate the Chaos Emerald, a deep blue, the color of the ocean. Knuckles seemed immensely satisfied with their progress, and with no appearance from Kilas, it would seem everything was going smoothly. They had piled back into the Tornado to return to Angel Island, they planned to keep the Chaos Emeralds there, where they were safely guarded. They still had one to locate, and no doubt that they would receive some resistance from Kilas, whom was certainly searching as well.

Angel Island acted as a bastion of protection from Kilas, Tikal was capable of guarding them from his influence. If they weren't so pressed for time, he would have tried to find something to try and stop Kilas from manipulating their minds with illusions, but they needed to act now.

Sonic shared the location of the final Chaos Emerald, and he groaned in annoyance. It was located in the capital of the kingdom of Solania, not the most idea place to search. Nevertheless, he had always meant to visit, maybe he'd even get to see the Princess. Rumor had it that she was a strong Chaos Adept, somebody who could manipulate Chaos Energy and use it as a weapon. He hadn't heard of many others outside of himself, it was a rare trait, but rumor had that the Princess had been born with the ability to generate fire, and her advisor, also a talented Chaos Adept, could manipulate objects and people around him, and even occasionally time travel if necessary.

He had always wondered what the criteria was to be accepted by Chaos Energy, Tikal had kept that information to himself and refused to share it. It evaded him to this day.

Sonic and Amy were both excited at retreating another Emerald, that left one to go, at the rate they were moving, they would have Tails back and be able to return to their normal lives. That being said, Sonic didn't know what he was going to do, he had grown attached to seeing Amy, along with going on perilous adventures for the fate of the world. He didn't want to give it up again.

Amy definitely wanted to continue, she liked this life of adventure, much more than she ever had doing her research. They new people she had met so far had all been nice and she had tried to form friendships with them. She felt she had succeeded with Sonic, and would have with Tails, she still had a small feeling of guilt and disappointment for not doing a better job of comforting him. Maybe he could still be here, and they would have had this dealt with long ago.

She shook the idea out of her head and refocused, they only had one more Emerald to find, Knuckles had mentioned it was a light gray in color, so they knew what exactly they were looking for. Sonic lowered the plane through the clouds and they spotted the city. It was gorgeous, large light yellow towered dominated the edges of the city, bright red and orange roofs dotted the landscape around and within the city, from their vantage up above, she noticed a large castle, towering over everything around it, she suddenly found herself understanding why they called it 'The City of the Sun'.

As they touched down, and they set off into the city. She hoped she was prepared for what ever might find them…

**-X-**

The air began to crackle, seemingly being torn apart before, in a back alley Kilas, appeared, he took in his surroundings, the faded yellow and tan colors told him he was in the right place, he could feel the Chaos Energy here, it had to be close by. He pulled the brown cloak over his head, the large red stain on it's chest standing out against its normally clean surface.

He took in a deep breath and set off on his search, he would find the Emeralds.

He would return…

The Gods would pay…

And Mobius will burn…

**Alright guys, that's all, hope you enjoyed! Until next time!**


	19. God of Gods

**Hello everyone! Sorry it took so long to get this out. Let's get right into it!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**God of Gods** _

The city was filled with wares and people which kept Amy moving from place to place, leaving her questioning what she might find next. She knew they were just here for the Emerald, but she figured there was no harm in seeing what the city had to offer in the meantime. Maybe she'd run into the Emerald eventually. She still wanted to be able to see Tails again, and she figured he'd probably want to as well. She had almost started seeing him as a brother of sorts, or at least, a very close friend.

Tails clearly had some heavy emotional baggage, but he was still a caring person, even though he was abused. She'd learned that about him during their time together, she only hoped that he was somehow still alive.

As she wandered the streets, she neglected to watch where she was going and ran into a nearby cloaked figure.

"I'm so sorry!" Amy spouted, the purple cat across from her stood up and brushed herself off.

"It's alright, I should have been paying better attention." She extended her arm out, "My name's Blaze."

"Amy," She replied, standing back up.

"You don't look like you're from around here…"

"What gave it away?"

"Your outfit, it doesn't look like something from here."

"I'll take that as a compliment!"

"How long you been here?"

"Not long, just got here, it's beautiful."

"You could say that again, I'm always stunned, do you want to see something?"

"Sure!"

Blaze lead her through the winding walkways that built up the city, she reached a back alley and clambered up onto a nearby crate and pulled herself onto a roof, she helped Amy up behind her. They crossed over the tiled roofs until they arrived at a short tower, extending out of the top of a nearby home, it appeared rather old, and had somewhat fallen into disuse. Amy followed her into a small crack in the wall, finding a old set of wooden stairs inside, they climbed up and Amy found herself in a small room, it had several things that made it look like small living quarters, chairs, tables, along with piles of books and maps of the city.

"Welcome!" Blaze began, introducing Amy to the small room. You've got one of the best views in the city right here!

Amy looked out of a nearby window, she could see the towers of the city skyline casting their deep shadows, heavily contrasting the glinting light from the roofs. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Blaze removed her hood and placed her elbows on the edge of the window next to her, resting her head atop her hands.

"Told you, there's just something about it."

"This is beautiful, I wish I could stay here forever."

Amy spotted the royal palace against the blue-sky backdrop, acting as the symbol for power in the city and kingdom.

"The royal palace looks amazing."

"Yeah, it certainly is."

Amy just remained mesmerized by the view for a bit, she turned away from the window to investigate the room she was in.

"Do you live here?"

"No, it's just somewhere I come to relax. Get away from the stress of everything."

"I hear you there," Amy responded. "What do you do?"

Blaze paused a moment, "Well, I'll tell you, but don't tell anybody!"

Amy swore herself to secrecy, Blaze extended out her palm, and instantly it burst into flames. Amy took a step back in surprise, it suddenly clicked to her.

"Are you-"

"Princess Blaze of Solania?"

Amy started freaking out. "I can't believe I'm meeting you! How do you not get noticed by everybody?"

"Everybody's too focused on my parents," Blaze responded, lighting a nearby lamp. "The only reason I get noticed is because of fire."

"Have you ever, burned yourself?"

"It's really odd, I don't think I can! I've tested it, nothing I do seems to allow me to burn myself with my own fire."

"That's really cool! I assume there's no issues with protecting yourself then!"

The two let out a short chuckle, Amy continued. "So why are you spending your time out here, shouldn't you be back at the palace?"

"It's just so stressful, I just like pretending to just be a normal Mobian for a bit. If Silver, or heaven forbid my parents figured out…"

"I won't tell anybody, promise."

Blaze smiled, "So, now that I've told you who I am, what are you here for?"

Amy sighed; this would take some explaining…

**-X-**

Kilas still continued wandering the streets, he could sense the Chaos Energy in the air around him. He was close, the energy tantalized him, beckoning him with it's call. He continued following the energy in the air, not caring for the glances and glares he was given. Nothing was going to stop him this time. The tendrils of energy wound down the endless alleyways and passages of the city, each one growing in strength as he neared its source.

He continued, arriving at a nearby alleyway, he stepped in and was surprised to find a small girl. She seemingly had taken refuge here, but the thing that tempted him, was the sheer amount of Chaos Energy in the air, it was here.

"Who are you?" The girl asked, she was a tan colored rabbit, wearing a dirty skirt of sort. Kilas somewhat saw himself in this girl, an outcast, someone with nowhere to go.

"I'm here to ask you something. What's your name?"

"Cream."

"What are you doing here?"

"I live here, this is my home."

While she talked Kilas quietly activated his illusions, completely overwhelmed her vision, which caused her to pass out from overload. He rummaged through her stuff and found the bright white gemstone, taking it into his hand, he almost dropped it in pure surprise. The energy was much stronger than he had first anticipated, much stronger than he had ever felt before. He hadn't realized this before, but now it was undeniable.

Tails had been a Chaos Adept, and a strong one at that. This was a very fortunate turn of events. Even with just one Emerald, he felt indestructible. He pulled the energy into himself, and released it, creating a deafening explosion. Buildings around him were torn apart, civilians screamed as the very stones themselves began to rise, golems of arcane energy began to pour out and into the city. They had one goal.

Take the city, and locate Tikal's guardian, no matter the cost…

**-X-**

"We're all here because some goddess lady told us that we need to find these Emeralds or else the world will end or something like that."

"Sounds like fun!" Blaze replied as she finished. "I wish I could go on something like that."

"Why can't yo-"

Her sentence was cut short by what sounded like an explosion, the two rushed to the nearby window, gazing out they found an entire area of the city appeared to have exploded, fragments of homes and streets we slowly rising into the air, leaving crimson red streaks behind them as they moved.

Blaze stepped back in utter shock before climbing down from her tower.

"Where are you going!?" Amy asked, quickly following behind her.

Pillars of flame materialized in the Princess's hands, "I'm going to do something!"

"I'll come with!" Amy replied materializing her hammer, Blaze was going to protest but once she produced a weapon, she nodded, and they began toward the sight of the explosion.

As they neared ground zero, they encountered a golem constructed from the Chaos Energy in the air, being held together by familiar crimson colored energy. It turned to face them and began a charge, Blaze extended her hand and a pillar of flame shot out from it, it proved futile however as its strength allowed it to continue charging, grasping Blaze by her cloak, a large patch of it tore across the back, allowing the Princess to fall from its grasp. She removed her now ruined cloak, revealing a purple outfit with white trim. Sending a blast of fire into the beast with renewed vigor. It circled around and charged, only this time, Blaze was ready.

She dodged to the side, charring the stones across its side, leaving it open for Amy to deliver a killing blow to the injured area, shattering it into small pieces.

The two exchanged a silent nod of partnership before continuing onward toward an unknown fate.

**-X-**

Knuckles was certainly alarmed when he heard the explosion, Kilas was here, and he had found the Chaos Emerald. He turned to Sonic, whom was equally in shock.

"You head back to Angel Island, get the Chaos Emeralds, I'll see if I can't get the last one from him. Let's finish this here and now."

Sonic couldn't help but agree, he returned to the tornado, while Knuckles started toward where he suspected Kilas would be found. Any golems he ran into turned to dust as he pummeled his way through them. He had prepared his whole life for this moment, and it wasn't about to go to waste.

**-X-**

Within the confounds of Kilas' mind, Miles was watching on in utmost horror. He had begged and pleaded to be allowed control of his body again, only for it to be ignored. Occasionally, just to mock him, Kilas would charge his thoughts with memories of his past, leaving him to live through his own personal hell over and over again.

Eventually, the kitsune broke. His fragile mental state shattering like a sledgehammer to a window. He grew extremely paranoid and delusional, he wanted his suffering to be over, no matter the cost to others and himself. Memories of his would-be friends had been overwritten, leaving only thoughts of betrayal and fear. Knuckles was a murderer, Sonic hated and despised him, and Amy only kept him around as a punching bag.

In his and Kilas' eyes, he was worthless.

On the other hand, the God was busy reveling in his soon to be infinite power, he had felt his connection to some of the golems snap as they were destroyed, he didn't care, nothing could touch him as he created more servants to aid his cause. Soon, the very Gods of Mobius would have no choice but to bow to him, he would be king of not only this mortal realm, but king among the Gods!

Having taken control of a Chaos Adept proved very beneficial, he felt the connection to another one of his golems break, he figured it couldn't hurt to have some fun before he inevitably took over and teleported himself to the site.

The air above Kunckles crackled with energy before spitting, sending out a shockwave that pushed him back. He put a arm in front of his eyes to protect himself from the dirt and dust, as he looked up, he found a very familiar two tailed kitsune floating above him, he was surround by a thin red aura, his eyes had changed color, now being very different shades of orange and blue, the Phantom Ruby sat embedded in his chest, glowing with power. In his right palm, sat the while Chaos Emerald.

"Look who it is!" The vulpine laughed, "Come to challenge me?"

Knuckles went to run, he knew he couldn't take him on in his current state, it would be suicide. As he turned however, large sets of red spikes appeared in front of him, blocking his exit to matter where he turned.

"Not so fast Guardian!" Kilas taunted. "We haven't even started the show!"

Red energy gathered around the fox's wrists he tightened his grip around the Chaos Emerald, "Without further interruption, let's see what you're made of!"

A hair storm of spikes were launched toward Knuckles, who rolled out of the way at the last moment, he dove at Kilas, only to be launched back by a shockwave, he couldn't even get near him.

This, was not going to be as simple as first thought…

**Alright guys, that's it for now, let me know your thoughts! Until next time!**


	20. Final Encounter

**Hello! Before we begin, I've got a brief announcement! This story is nearing it's end with only one chapter remaining after this, I want to know what you guys want to see after we're done! There's a poll on my profile for the next story, if you could, please take the time to vote, everyone counts! Let's get going!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**Final Encounter** _

Knuckles dove behind a short pile of rubble, gasping for breath. He had known there wasn't any way to win, but rather interestingly, he didn't have to. Sonic was hopefully arriving soon with the other six Chaos Emeralds, he only needed to get the seventh.

Kilas launched another barrage of crystal, sending fragments everywhere as they shattered on impact with the rubble. He was going to continue the attack, but he was struck in the face by a bolt of fire.

He turned and found the Princess, along with who he recounted from Tails' memories as Amy. Princess Blaze's hands were alight, Amy had her hammer drawn, ready to strike anything unfortunate enough to get in range. Kilas simply laughed at their appearance.

"I've got to hand it to you Princess, you caught me off guard with that one!" Kilas responded, during a portion of his glass skewers to face the newcomers. "I'm afraid however, that'll be the only advantage you'll get!"

Amy grabbed the stunned Blaze and pulled her around the corner of a nearby building, just as several shards flew past their heads. Blaze was still completely shocked; he had just shrugged off a fire blast to the face like it was nothing. Nothing! How she wished Silver was here.

" _Aww, Blaze, you do care!"_

She smiled at the mental voice of the telepath.  _"Nice to see you decided to join us!"_

" _Not quite, I'll be there in a second, just hold out for a bit!"_

Blaze instinctively nodded, causing Amy to give her a confused look. "A friend of mine will be here in a few minutes." Blaze responded, "He's a telepath."

Amy nodded and peaked out from behind her cover, Kilas was distracted with Knuckles, she ran out and charged Kilas, jumping at him with her hammer held high. Suddenly, she felt herself slowing down, until finally, she stopped in midair unable to move.

Kilas turned to her, extending an arm out to face her, Amy looked over to Knuckles, whom was occupied with two golems, she wouldn't be getting help from him anytime soon. Shards circled around her, as she stared her former friend directly in the eyes.

"Tails, I know you're in there." She began. "You can fight this."

"You think your friend can hear you?" Kilas commented. "That's sweet, perhaps I shouldn't have erased his mind…"

Amy gritted her teeth at the comment. "You did what!?"

"Your friend's mind was, very easy to mess with. I didn't even need to change much! I never would have thought he had that much hatred toward others!"

"When I get my hands on you, I'll- "

"You'll what?" Kilas responded, letting a smirk cross his face. "Anything you throw at me will only end up hurting your friend, face it, there's nothing you can do."

Kilas was going to continue but was struck by a massive blast of fire. He dropped Amy to the ground, whom, taking the opportunity, snatched the clear gemstone out of the God's hand.

She dashed for cover, as she did, several glass shards sliced across her arms and back. Kilas growled out in pure rage and rushed toward Amy and Blaze. Silver witnessed it from a nearby rooftop, and lowered himself down to their position, grabbing a nearby stone and hurling it at Kilas.

"Blaze, get out of here!" He yelled as Kilas rose back to his feet. The Princess didn't need to be told twice, she ran behind Amy, trying to escape.

The kitsune let out an audible growl as he stood, the familiar dark red energy gathered around his wrists. "Get out of my way!" He yelled, unleashing a blast of energy. Silver dodged to the side and lifted a stone, tossing it as the kitsune. Kilas launched himself forward, grasping Silver by the neck, he discharged Chaos Energy into the hedgehog's body, he screamed in pain and eventually he dropped to the floor, completely still. Kilas smiled, " _Pathetic."_

Silvers corpse condensed into a small cyan orb and vanished, moments later, a large explosion of cyan light caught Kilas' attention, he turned around to find Silver, alive and well.

"Let's try that again." The hedgehog began, Kilas was dumbstruck.

"How- "

"You think you'd have heard about time travel by now. According to the timeline, I now never died."

The fox snarled and charged back at Silver, the hedgehog dodged to the side and lifted tossed a nearby stone at his attacker, who stumbled back with the attack.

Knowing his assault was pointless, it was just a distraction at best. He turned to run toward where Blaze had retreated with the Chaos Emerald, he felt Silver's telekinesis pulling backward, but it wasn't going to stop him. He dashed off at high speeds, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. Silver stepped back and raised himself upward, maybe he could still be of assistance after he caught up.

**-X-**

Sonic arrived to pure mayhem and destruction. The arcane golems Kilas had been creating were loose across the city, causing destruction as they went. He lowered the plane down outside the city and ran inward, the guards were all busy dealing with the invasion that there weren't any to check him. He had the remaining six Emeralds in his satchel and was looking for the others to finally gather the seven of them together.

As he wandered around, avoiding the golems as he went, he encountered Knuckles, whom seemed to be busy searching for something.

"Got the Emeralds," Sonic told him, the echidna nodded in response.

"Good, Amy managed to get the seventh from Kilas, but she's who knows where right now. For all I know, he might have it back by now."

That obviously didn't sound great, but it was the best information they had now. They had to find the last Emerald, or Sonic had just brought them all here for Kilas to use.

Knuckles gestured to the destruction around him, "If he's allowed to get all seven of them, it won't just be Solania, he'll be unstoppable. You need to promise me, that you'll die before you let him get his hands on him."

Sonic hesitated for a moment, pledging to die for a cause was no small feat. Eventually, he responded. "Alright, I won't let him get his hands on the Emeralds. I promise."

Knuckles responded, "Thank you. Kilas can be stopped, we're just going to need the last Emerald."

"Let's get going then!"

**-X-**

Amy and Blaze continued onward, Kilas had been stalled by Silver, but for how long was up to debate. Blaze had been handed the Emerald, and, due to being a Chaos Adept, was unleashing jets of flame at any golem or thing that got in her way.

Amy felt the heat from the ball of flame as it flew past her face, it struck another golem and incinerated it. Amy turned behind her and swung at another one. Ever since they had gotten the Emerald, the assault intensified, as if they knew they were close to finishing off their master. In fact, it almost seemed as if every golem in the city had been alerted to their presence. While they weren't terribly difficult to take down, their sheer numbers were starting to take a toll on the heroes.

Not to be deterred however, they continued their push through the swarm. Eventually, they managed to break through the wall of golems and ran down the street. Both were exhausted, but knew stopping would mean capture or death, they continued to run.

Eventually, they simply couldn't go any further, and were forced to stop for a moment. It seemed they had lost their pursuers, for how long remained a question. As they were catching their breath, a figure emerged from a nearby alleyway, Blaze instinctively summoned a fire blast and launched it.

"Hey! What was that for!?" The figure yelled.

Amy stopped for a second, "Knuckles?"

The echidna revealed himself, Sonic also appeared from around a nearby street corner. "Knuckles doesn't look like they're- " He stopped himself as he realized Knuckles had already found the girls.

"Sonic, the Emeralds." Knuckles responded. The hedgehog removed his satchel and handed it to the echidna. Blaze also handed over her Emerald. Knuckles removed the seven of them and placed them in a circle, ready to finally take on Kilas.

**-X-**

He could feel the Chaos Energy charging the air around him, he was close. Kilas prowled the streets searching for the source, he could practically taste the energy around him. He summoned another set of golems and growled to himself. He had been so close, and he had allowed it to slip away. Even worse so, Tails' thoughts were busy revolting since Amy had tried to speak directly to him.

Kilas out of pure rage, lifted a nearby building into the air and slammed it down to the ground, annihilating the entirety of its structure. It did help him vent, but only for a moment. Suddenly, as if by divine fate, he turned the corner and there was the Chaos Emeralds, along with everybody who had ruined and interfered with his plan. He prepared another group of attack shards and began an advance, the guardian was busy performing an incantation to prepare the Emeralds for their use, he launched a shard at him, which struck him in the arm. The other members of their group turned to face him and charged forward to allow Knuckles to finish the ritual.

**-X-**

Knuckles was in rather serious pain, the glass shard was still stuck into his arm, causing it to scream out in pain, but he couldn't stop to deal with it. If he stopped now, there was no telling if he'd be able to complete it before the others were inevitably defeated by Kilas. He could hear fighting behind him as another shard whizzed past his head. He would just have to put faith in the others as he began.

"The servers are the seven Chaos."

Another shard flew past him, he continued to control his breathing as he continued.

"Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart."

A faint glow began to emanate from the Chaos Emeralds, each illuminating the others.

"The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos."

The glow intensified, and the Emeralds hovered a few inches above the ground. There was no turning back now.

"Gods of Mobius! Hear our plea, assist us in protecting not only ourselves, but every other living being! Grant us the power that we seek!"

Almost instantly, the Emeralds rose to eye level and sped off toward the fight. Knuckles sighed; it had worked.

**-X-**

Sonic was getting pummeled, in fact, almost all of them were getting destroyed. It didn't matter though, Knuckles had said he would only need a moment, and buy a moment they did. The Emeralds appeared around himself and began to slowly orbit him, he felt nearly boundless energy flowing into him as the Emeralds selected their host, the quills on the back of his head stood on end as he was slowly lifted into the air. His color changed to a pristine yellow as he projected light all around him.

Kilas took a step back in fear, almost instantly, he knew what he had to do to defeat him, it was almost like he could hear other voices inside his head. He charged toward Kilas, whom instinctively threw his hands up in defense. The impact threw the kitsune backward as he rose to his feet, Sonic delivered a punch to his gut, a loud cracking sound was heard as a segment of the Phantom Ruby broke off and fell to the ground, he hit it again, expanding the cracks visible across his surface.

The kit tried to teleport to safety but found his powers unwilling to respond, he was gathering power, but not fast enough. He was hit again, and he felt his influence over Tails snap for a moment, he reestablished the connection only to be hit again, there was no way he could escape, and with one final strike to the crystal, his influence broke and Kilas teleported away.

With the kitsune gone, Sonic powered down, allowing the Emeralds to scatter, there was silence for a moment. Until finally, Amy spoke the question on everybody's mind.

"Did, we win?"

**Alright guys, that's it for this chapter, there's going to be one more before I wrap up this story for good! I'm sorry for the very long wait but finals have been crazy. Please remember the poll on my profile, every vote counts! Until next time!**


	21. In the End

**Hey guys, I come with some sad news. This is the last chapter of this story, as such there's going to be a big announcement at the end of the chapter. Please go ahead and vote on my profile for what you want to see next!**

**NeckBreak: While normally I am a fan of the pairing, I've got one last plot thread to wrap up!**

**Sonic vs evil: I've got something similar going on, you'll have to read and see!**

**TheGameNguyener: Several important questions, and I'm happy to say that they'll all be answered! I've had tons of fun writing this and I'm kind of sad that it's over.**

**2epx: I've loved your story and I'm glad you're enjoying this one!**

**Let's get going!**

**Parallel Lives**

_**In the End** _

Amy's question was seemingly answered as the golems around them crumbled to pieces. The Chaos Energy in the air slowly faded away, a cheer broke out from some of the civilians and the heroes couldn't help but smile, they had done it.

Sonic instinctively pulled Amy into a hug, just happy that she was still alright, she returned it, a slight blush crossing her face as she did.

"I knew we could do it." Sonic began, Amy just smiled back.

While everybody celebrated however, one certain kitsune was busy still recovering from the events that had transpired. He laid flat on his back amidst several trees, providing a bit a shade. His panting was the only sound aside from the occasional wind blowing through the leaves.

He slowly rose to his feet, using a tree for support until he was confident enough to stand on his own two feet. He removed his brown jacket and looked around, he was on Westside Island, he began to inspect his chest. Bruises were dotted across it, and the Phantom Ruby had a long-split running down it, he tried to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge. As he continued though he heard a voice.

" _Tails…"_

"Haven't you taken enough from me!?" He yelled at the now familiar voice of Kilas. "What more do you want!?"

" _I need you, isn't vengeance what you want!? To make them all regret ever crossing you!?"_

"I might have once," Tails responded. "But now, I…"

He let his mind wander for a second, composing his thoughts. "Sonic and Amy treated me so nicely. They showed me they cared; I can't do it…"

Tails awaited Kilas' response, but he was only met with weak laughter.  _"Well… I guess this is about time to break the news then. You'll never get to see them again!"_

"What?"

" _Of course, your mortal brain can't understand, I still own you, just look down at your chest for proof. We'll be linked until they day you die, and as long as we're connected…"_ Tails, without warning, teleported a short distance away. He impulsively took a step back at the pain that surged through his chest.

" _I'll still have control!"_

Tails was about to respond, only to suddenly be hit with the full weight of what his agreement only a few days ago meant. Tears started falling out across his face.

" _So… Now that you understand, you have no choice but to help me!"_

Tails paused, allowing his tears to subside. His response was only one word. "No."

" _You still don't get it do you? You have nobody!"_

"You might be right… But I know, that even if I don't get to see them ever again, that they're happy. In the end, that's all I need to know isn't it?"

Kilas was at a loss for words, he merely retreated into Tails' subconscious as the kitsune retrieved his jacket and went to find a new place to settle down.

**Six Months Later…**

Amy had made the trip several times before now, after Kilas was defeated, and she had helped rebuild Solania, she was returning to Westside Island again. She hadn't seen Tails in months, and she was beginning to doubt he was even alive. She arrived in Sonic's plane that she had borrowed for the occasion and set back out in search.

Just when she thought she was doing better at getting Tails to talk and trust others, she was taken over by a literal God and possessed into doing his bidding. She needed to find him, not just to be sure Kilas could never return, but to assure herself that he was alright.

As she arrived at a familiar spot outside the temple that would have contained the Chaos Emerald. She heard something, movement, somewhere in the brush. Looking over, and carefully searching for a moment, she saw a pair of eyes staring back at her, one a bright sapphire, the other a tangerine. The figure turned and ran but seeing they eyes was all the confirmation she needed. She chased after the kitsune, whom was running from her for some reason.

"Leave me alone!" The kitsune yelled.

"Tails wait!"

The fox didn't respond, continuing to try and escape from her pursuit. She eventually tired him out and caught up to him. He jumped back in fear, curling up into a fetal position against a nearby tree.

Amy finally caught a good glimpse of him, his jacket, which she recognized, was torn in several places, his feet were bare, allowing his paws to be covered in dried mud. He looked as if he hadn't eaten in days.

"Tails…" She began but was quickly interrupted."

"I don't want to hurt you! I'm a monster! Just stay away!"

"You're not a monster!"

"I killed! I- I can't control it, I can still hear him, I don't want to go back. I don't want to do that all over again!"

This statement alarmed Amy, but she pressed forward none the less. She was this close and wasn't going to lose her chance now.

The fox broke down, Amy went to comfort him only to be pushed away. "Don't touch me! I don't want to hurt you… Just leave me alone, forget me…"

"Tails, that only makes it worse, I know you can't control him, but right now, he's not anymore powerful than you are."

Small red glass like shards appeared in midair, they weren't active now, but they simply hovered with no given purpose, a dim red glow spread over the kit's arms, indicating he was calling them, coherently or not. Some of them slowly fell and shattered on the ground, Amy tentatively walked through the field of them and hugged the kitsune. Once she had fully embraced him, he couldn't contain himself and burst into tears.

"I just want my parents!" The kit yelled, burying his face into Amy shoulder, the hedgehog gently stroked down his back, being careful not to alarm him. As he did, red energy surrounded the fox and instantly, he vanished, only to reappear seconds later. She recounted it as a teleport of sorts, he was still crying profusely, with no signs of stopping.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't…" Tails began. Amy cut him off with a hug, the kit wiped some tears put of his eyes. "Amy, why did you come back for me?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"It's just- everybody ends up leaving me, while I was with Kilas, he, showed me a memory of my parents. I went to see them afterward; they didn't even want to see me. I was a disgrace…"

Amy tightened the hug on him, Tails continued. "My- My father never wanted me right after they noticed that I had… They wanted to get rid of me, I was never family to them. I was just, something that they had to take care of… Until they left me, they put me on an island with nobody and just left me behind."

"I'm so sorry Tails..."

"Every single day, it was always more, more beatings, more pain, more abuse. I just wanted it all to end, I was just that freak kid whose parents left him." Tails continued, his voice cracking as tears built up in his eyes. "It never stopped, when I met Kilas, he just, he told me that it could all end. I was so stupid!"

Amy just let him cry for a while, eventually while he calmed down. Amy had an idea.

"Tails," She began. "Where do you stay?"

"There's a cave around here, I live in it."

Amy thought for a second, "If you want to, you could stay with me. What do you think of that?"

Tails paused for a moment, "I'd like it, but, I can't… I don't want to hurt you…"

"It's alright Tails, I'll be alright."

"No, you won't! You don't understand! Kilas still controls my powers, I could hurt you! I could…"

"It doesn't matter to me Tails; I know you're a good person. You won't let him, even if you do, I forgive you."

"Amy, I'm sorry… I'm sorry for what I did six months ago, when I… Shot you… You were just trying to help me, and I attacked you!"

"It's fine, I forgive you Tails. I can't understand everything that's happened to you, but I hope you'll let me help."

"I'm also sorry for everything I did while I was with Kilas, I attacked you. I could have killed you…"

"It's not your fault Tails, I'm sure you did everything you could."

"I- I didn't… For a while, I really did agree with him, I wanted payback for everything, on my parents for abandoning me… But, whenever I thought of you and Sonic, I couldn't do it… I'm so sorry…"

Amy couldn't think of a proper response. So, the two just sat in silence for a moment. After a while, she brought back up her question.

"So, what do you think about living with me? I sure it's better than whatever you've got here."

Tails waited for a second before responding, "Would we be like- family?"

"Sure!" Amy ruffled his bangs, "As long as I get to call you 'Little Bro'."

Tails laughed seemingly lightening up slightly, "Alright, thanks Amy."

"You're welcome Tails."

Tails and Amy both hugged one another. Knowing that they both, finally, had somewhere to belong.

**The End**

**Alright everyone, that's all for the story. I know I'm sad too, but, while we're here, I'd like to thank each and everyone of you who read, reviewed, followed, and favorited me as this went on, however I do have some personal thanks to give to some people!**

**TheGameNguyener: Thank you for your regular reviews and insight into the story, you have no idea how happy it made me!**

**Fortune Spirit: Thanks for your thoughts in the early chapters, it was super nice to have those reviews early on to keep myself going!**

**Piggon: I've always loved getting your reviews, yours on chapter 16 of the story is one of my favorites I've ever gotten!**

**NeckBreak: I loved seeing your constant reviews, even when I didn't get any, you're awesome!**

**Again, I'd like to thank everybody who made this possible! Be sure to check me out when the new story posts! Until next time!**


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